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David Matthew Murdoch (born 17 April 1978) is a retired Scottish curler from
Stirling Stirling (; ; ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in Central Belt, central Scotland, northeast of Glasgow and north-west of Edinburgh. The market town#Scotland, market town, surrounded by rich farmland, grew up connecting the roya ...
. As the Scotland
skip Skip or Skips may refer to: Acronyms * SKIP (Skeletal muscle and kidney enriched inositol phosphatase), a human gene * Simple Key-Management for Internet Protocol * SKIP of New York (Sick Kids need Involved People), a non-profit agency aiding ...
, he and his former team of Ewan MacDonald, Warwick Smith, Euan Byers and Peter Smith are the 2006 and 2009
World Curling Champions The world is the totality of entities, the whole of reality, or everything that exists. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the world as unique, while others talk of a "plu ...
. Representing
Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...
, he has been skip at three
Winter Olympics The Winter Olympic Games (), also known as the Winter Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were held i ...
, Torino 2006, finishing fourth, Vancouver 2010, finishing fifth and Sochi 2014, where he won an Olympic silver medal. He served as national and Olympic coach for British Curling since September 2018, before being named Curling Canada's high-performance director in early 2023.


Sporting career


Junior

Murdoch is a two time World Junior Curling Champion – in 1995, as an alternate for Tom Brewster, Jr., and in 1996 as a lead for James Dryburgh. In 1998 he won a silver medal at the World Juniors as a third for Garry MacKay. By 1999, Murdoch had moved up to the position of skip, and led Scotland to a 6–3 record and fifth place at that year's world juniors. Four years later, he led Scotland to the European Championship title, beating Peja Lindholm's formidable Sweden team in the final.


Men's

In 2005, Murdoch went to his first ever World Championships. At the 2005 Ford World Men's Curling Championship his Scotland rink won the silver medal after losing to Canada's Randy Ferbey in the final. The team's fine run of form ensured all four members a place in the Great Britain men's squad for the
2006 Winter Olympics The 2006 Winter Olympics (), officially the XX Olympic Winter Games () and also known as Torino 2006, were a winter multi-sport event held from 10 to 26 February in Turin, Italy. This marked the second time Italy had hosted the Winter O ...
, with Murdoch in the position of skip. At the Olympics, Murdoch and his team lost in the bronze medal match to Pete Fenson of the United States. Two months later, Murdoch would avenge his defeat in 2005 by winning the gold medal at the 2006 World Men's Curling Championship. Murdoch defeated Canada (skipped by Jean-Michel Ménard) in the final. In December 2006 he won the silver medal in the European Championships in
Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...
, Switzerland, and followed that up with gold in
2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...
. He successfully defended his title at the European Curling Championships 2008 against Norway's Thomas Ulsrud. Murdoch and his team represented Scotland again at the 2008 World Men's Curling Championship, where he lost to Canada in the final. In 2009, Murdoch once again won a gold medal for Scotland at the World Men's Curling Championship, which was held in
Moncton, New Brunswick Moncton (; ) is the most populous city in the Canadian province of New Brunswick. Situated in the Petitcodiac River Valley, Moncton lies at the geographic centre of the Maritime Provinces. The city has earned the nickname "Hub City" because ...
. On 17 January 2010, Murdoch's rink became the first non-Canadian team to win the TSN Skins Game. His team won $70,500 (£43,000) for the win. After the 2009–10 season, Murdoch's Olympic team broke up. In 2012, Murdoch teamed up with Tom Brewster's rink. The 2012–13 season saw them win the Edinburgh Invitational in late 2012 and the German Masters in Hamburg in January 2013. With Murdoch as skip, they won bronze at the 2013 World Championships. The team took bronze at the 2013 European Championships. In October 2013, he was selected to skip the Great Britain squad at the
2014 Winter Olympics The 2014 Winter Olympics, officially called the XXII Olympic Winter Games () and commonly known as Sochi 2014 (), were an international winter multi-sport event that was held from 7 to 23 February 2014 in Sochi, Russia. Opening ro ...
. where he won a silver medal, losing to Canada's Brad Jacobs in the final. His 12 curling matches as skip of the Team GB men at the Sochi Olympics saw his last stones win crucial games including a vital play off against Norway in which his shot was dubbed by national press as ‘shot of the century’ to make the semi-finals and then a last shot against Sweden to secure a silver medal and Olympic final place. The silver medal was the first for Team GB men’s curling since the 1924 games. Curling coverage at Sochi was seen for 30 hours and was the most talked about sport on social media. However, Murdoch's rink endured what he described as "a difficult year" following the 2014 Olympics: they lost in the final of the Scottish Championships in February 2015 to defending champion and former team-mate Ewan MacDonald's team, denying Team Murdoch a place at the 2015 Ford World Men's Curling Championship, before finishing third in the Scottish qualifying tournament held in October of that year for the 2015 European Curling Championships behind Kyle Smith and former team-mate Tom Brewster's rinks, thus failing to secure selection. In 2016 Team Murdoch were runners-up to Team Brewster in both the Scottish championships in February and the European Playdowns in October. Murdoch's rink were selected to compete for Scotland at the 2017 World Curling Championship, where they secured qualification for Team GB to the
2018 Winter Olympics The 2018 Winter Olympics (), officially the XXIII Olympic Winter Games (; ) and also known as PyeongChang 2018 (), were an international winter multi-sport event held between 9 and 25 February 2018 in Pyeongchang County, South Ko ...
by finishing sixth: however in June 2017 it was announced that Kyle Smith's team had been chosen to compete at the 2018 Games over Team Murdoch and Team Brewster. On 13 July 2017 Murdoch announced his retirement from his playing career, and will begin coaching. Murdoch has commentated and taken part in studio analysis on curling for
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for many years and
Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...
for the 2014 Winter Paralympics. He has appeared recently on many TV & Radio shows including: '' Sport Relief 2014'', '' Daybreak'', '' The Alan Titchmarsh Show'',
Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British broadcasting of sports events, subscription sports channels operated by the satellite television, satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television ...
, Sky 1’s ''Game Changers'',
BT Sport TNT Sports (formerly BT Sport) is a group of pay television sports channels in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Now owned by Warner Bros. Discovery Sports Europe, Warner Bros. Discovery and BT Group, they first launched as B ...
’s Panel with
Tim Lovejoy Timothy Paul Lovejoy (born 28 March 1968) is an English television presenter best known for hosting Saturday morning football programme '' Soccer AM'' with Helen Chamberlain for over a decade and ''BT Sports Panel'' on Saturday mornings. He ...
and Matt Dawson,
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with Anneka Rice,
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with Danny Baker and Shelagh Fogarty,
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and recently being a winning panellist on '' A Question of Sport''. As a lottery funded athlete, he has also officially released the National Lottery draw live on BBC alongside Kate Garraway to over 10 million viewers. He has also featured alongside the rest of the GB curling team on '' Eggheads'' for
BBC2 BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matter, incorporating genres such as comedy, drama and ...
, as broadcast in February 2015. The team won the '' Daily Record'' ‘Team of the year’ award at the recent Our Heroes ceremony. David is a keen supporter of many charities and good causes, his charity work includes giving out Duke of Edinburgh awards regularly, most recently at Holyrood in the presence of
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (born Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, later Philip Mountbatten; 10 June 19219 April 2021), was the husband of Queen Elizabeth II. As such, he was the consort of the British monarch from h ...
. He and his King Charles spaniel also recently supported the PDSA at a charity campaign photo shoot. He has also taken part in a charity curling calendar featuring as one of the world’s elite curlers. Recently David and the team supported Sport Relief at a special night televised by the BBC in London with
Sebastian Coe Sebastian Newbold Coe, Baron Coe, (born 29 September 1956), often referred to as Seb Coe, is a British sports administrator, former politician and retired track and field athlete. As a middle-distance runner, Coe won four Olympic medals, incl ...
and many summer Olympic legends at the Olympic park and later flew up to Glasgow to launch the Sport Relief mile.


Personal

David Murdoch is from a talented curling family being the brother of Olympic coach Nancy Murdoch and former European Champion Neil Murdoch. The siblings' mother, Marion Murdoch, is a curling coach who was given a lifetime achievement award by Sportscotland in 2015 for her coaching work. She has been credited by David as "a big part of how (he) ended up being a competitive player", and she also helped develop fellow Olympic medallists Claire Hamilton and Anna Sloan. As a ten-year-old boy, Murdoch was an eyewitness to the crash of
Pan Am Flight 103 Pan Am Flight 103 (PA103/PAA103) was a regularly scheduled Pan Am transatlantic flight from Frankfurt to Detroit via a stopover in London and another in New York City. Shortly after 19:00 on 21 December 1988, the Boeing 747 "Clipper Maid of th ...
over Lockerbie, the town where he grew up. Murdoch's father, former Scottish curling champion Matthew Murdoch, 70, died 12 days after watching his son win silver at the 2014 Winter Olympics. He is married and has a daughter. Murdoch was appointed
Member of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...
(MBE) in the
2022 Birthday Honours The 2022 Queen's Birthday Honours are appointments by some of the 15 Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to Orders and decorations of the Commonwealth realms, various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those ...
for services to curling.


Teams


Awards

*WJCC All-star lead: *WJCC All-star third:


Grand Slam record


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Murdoch, David 1978 births Living people Scottish male curlers British male curlers Olympic curlers for Great Britain Olympic silver medallists for Great Britain Olympic medalists in curling Scottish Olympic competitors Curlers at the 2006 Winter Olympics Curlers at the 2010 Winter Olympics Curlers at the 2014 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 2014 Winter Olympics World curling champions European curling champions Continental Cup of Curling participants People from Lockerbie Curlers from Stirling Scottish curling coaches Members of the Order of the British Empire 21st-century Scottish sportsmen 20th-century Scottish sportsmen Sportspeople from Dumfries and Galloway