She is still in her mid-twenties but as she prepares to compete in the world’s most populated country for the first time Eve Muirhead can reflect on her sport’s exponential growth in the time she has been competing at the highest level.

The skip who has dominated the Scottish scene for most of the past decade and team-mates Anna Sloan, Vicki Adams and Lauren Gray, are in Beijing where they are expecting the competition to be tougher than ever before at what is the last chance via the World Championships to clinch a sport for Team GB at next year’s Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.

“You look at Japan, China and Korea, Asian countries that when I started curling didn’t even exist in our sport, yet within a few years Betty Wang, the Chinese skip, was world champion and an Olympic bronze medallist,” Muirhead observed.

“That’s just the way the sport’s going. These countries throw money at it to hire the best coaches. They go and live in Canada, they play all the best tournaments and that’s what they do. We’ve got to make sure and keep up.”

They have done so to date, ranked fifth overall and second top among the European teams in the Canadian dominated world rankings, but heading to the Far East is a timely reminder of how much tougher it is getting.

“I think Asia is getting stronger and stronger,” said Muirhead.

“A few years ago the Koreans weren’t really on the map now, God, we haven’t beaten them I don’t think this season. We’ve played them about four times and they’re like our bogey team. They are really good.

“I know they’ve got the father of Brett Gallant, one of the top Canadian guys, coaching them and he’s full of knowledge. So when they can afford to do things like that all they’re going to do is get better and better isn’t it?”

The question is, of course, pitched rhetorically, but for all that it was not what they wanted, a fifth place finish at last year’s World Championships has left Team Muirhead well placed to secure the Winter Olympic spot.

There is no fixed target for that qualification spot because it also depends on the performances of other teams but, in any case, the former world champion is not interested in minimum requirements.

“We have to play the best we can and things like Olympic qualification will take care of themselves. We won’t be playing for fifth, that’s for sure,” she asserted.

“We won the Worlds four years ago. In the Europeans there have been silvers and bronzes. The gold has been on hold for a while but we’re probably in the best position as a team that we’ve ever been.

“We made important changes at the start of the year. That was always going to bring us down a bit before we came up. I’d like to think we’ve come out of that little bit of a rut. Now, after a couple of good tournaments we’re definitely on the up.

“Looking back at when we won the Worlds and then got a medal at the Olympics it was a brave move to make changes at that time. You can keep plodding along but other teams improve and change things and the time was right to do that with us.”

In short, as the sport evolves they need to be ready to do so as well and Muirhead is embracing that.

“It is an exciting time to be involved in the sport,” said Muirhead.

“The amount of countries that are adopting curling is really, really good and I know from a few years ago when I played the European Mixed Championships out in Turkey, I didn’t even know the European C Championships existed and it was taking place the year before I turned up there, so that was like another 15 teams. You’ve also got the European Bs which is 15, the European As is 10, so there’s a lot of countries that are curling that a lot of people don’t think are curling.

“All that’s going to happen is they will get better and once they manage to get a little bit of money you can get some high class coaches in and that’s when they can develop.”

This latest new cultural experience will require further adjustments but they are getting used to those and Muirhead is hoping to enjoy it as much as her last trip to the Orient.

“To get the chance to go to a country I’ve never been to is pretty exciting,” she said.

“Vicki’s been there. I think they played the World University Games there, so she’s experienced it and as a team we’re pretty open for change, pretty relaxed when it comes to deal with what you’ve got, like make the most of what you have. So it’s going to be good. I’m excited.

“Japan was phenomenal. Having played a Worlds there it’s probably one of the friendliest, cleanest, just all round most fantastic countries. They were really professional and all of us loved the food in Japan as well.

“On the other hand from what I’ve heard China is going to be a little bit more of a challenge in these different areas. The men’s worlds was there a few years ago so I’ve spoken to Euan MacDonald a little bit about it and my brother Glen was his fifth, so he’s mentioned a bit, however as a team we’re pretty pro-active when it comes to being prepared.”

The Women’s World Championships are taking place from March 18-26.