Early Start: Curling Canada’s Murdoch starting HPD job now rather than end of season

LONDON, Ont. –

David Murdoch is starting his position as Curling Canada high-performance director a couple months earlier than originally planned.

The two-time world champion, who served as national and Olympic coach for British Curling over the last quadrennial, officially started work with the Canadian sport organization on Wednesday.

Murdoch, who was named to the post on Feb. 2, originally planned to begin his new duties at the end of the curling season.

“It’s an amazing opportunity with this job and the athletes that we have and the systems that we have here to achieve great things,” Murdoch said Friday during a media availability at the Tim Hortons Brier.

“Obviously I need some time to get my feet under the table and figure a few things out, see where everything is and then get to work. I want to get busy.”

Murdoch, who succeeds the retiring Gerry Peckham in the position, moved into coaching after retiring as a player in 2017.

He helped establish British Curling’s National Curling Academy and has worked closely with Scotland’s top teams.

Eve Muirhead won Olympic gold last year in Beijing and fellow Scot Bruce Mouat took men’s silver. Mouat and Jenn Dodds just missed the mixed doubles podium with a fourth-place finish.

As a player, Murdoch skipped Scotland to world titles in 2006 and 2009.

He also skipped Britain to a silver medal at the Sochi Games in 2014, the last year Canada reached the top of the Olympic podium in four-player curling.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 10, 2023.