Perth’s Mike Hay steps down as Winter Olympics chief

Perth’s Mike Hay won’t be completing a winter Olympics hat-trick as Chef de Mission.

The former curler, who led Team GB into the Sochi and PyeongChang Games, has stuck to his plan of making 2018 his last and will be succeeded in Tokyo 2022 by Georgie Harland.

A winner of five European curling titles and two World Championship silver medals as an athlete, Hay then guided Rhona Martin’s rink to Olympic gold as performance director at Salt Lake City in 2002.

Awarded an MBE in 2004, he joined the BOA two years later and headed up Team GB’s Preparation Camp at Vancouver 2010 and London 2012 before acting as Deputy Chef de Mission at the Rio summer Games.

Hay, part of a famous curling family, said: “Having been involved in the long-term planning for Beijing for two years now I am confident it is going to be a special Games for Team GB’s athletes.

“It has been a long-term ambition for us to create a strong succession plan for future Games and I believe this appointment shows that intent and that there is a depth of leadership talent at the BOA.

“I have loved my time working for the BOA on both summer and winter Games and would like to thank all of my colleagues and former colleagues for making my time here very special.”

Olympic bronze medallist Harland will become Team GB’s first female Chef de Mission in Beijing.

Harland, a former modern pentathlete who finished third in Athens in 2004, was Chef de Mission for the 2020 Youth Olympics in Lausanne and appointed a deputy Chef for both Rio 2016 and the delayed Tokyo 2020 Games.

She said: “I am so honoured to have been asked to take the role of Chef de Mission for Beijing 2022.

“I have a deep passion for the Olympic movement and all it encompasses, and so outside of representing your country as an athlete, which I have been fortunate enough to do, this is the next best thing.”

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