A TEENAGE trainee hairdresser from Hamilton described the moment she won an Olympic gold medal as “insane”.
Holly Burke and her team-mates Logan Carson, Archie Hyslop, Tia Laurie, Ethan Brewster and Callie Soutar, represented Great Britain in the mixed curling competition at the Youth Winter Olympics in South Korea.
Holly with her gold medal (Image: Holly Burke)
“Considering the first few ends hadn’t gone our way, to come back the way we did and win gold was amazing,” said a delighted Holly, who is 16.
“I can’t imagine a better moment, it’s 100 percent the highlight of everything I’ve done in curling so far.”
A member of the Scottish National Curling Academy, and the Scottish Curling Future Leaders Programme, Holly has represented Scotland at the National Junior Curling Tournament mixed doubles and been placed third in the Scottish Junior Championships in both 2022 and 2023.
The win in South Korea was extra-special for the former Hamilton Grammar pupil.
“It was watching the Scottish curlers on that very rink in Gangwon at the Winter Olympics in 2018 that inspired me to take up the sport,” she said. “So to win gold there myself was really mind blowing.”
Holly balances her curling career with her studies at New College Lanarkshire, and a part-time job in South Lanarkshire Leisure and Culture’s (SLLC) busy visitor centre café at Chatelherault Country Park.
“My goal is to get the ‘big’ Winter Olympics now,” she adds. “I want to get there with the women’s team, and come back home with a gold.”