By Mark Staniforth, PA Sport, Salt Lake City

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Two hundred years after Scotland gave curling to the world, curling could finally be coming home.

Rhona Martin's bravehearts stand one game away from a miraculous Olympic gold medal, three days after the Great British skip had muttered: "We're out. We're dead" following defeat by Germany.

Martin and her all-Scottish crew of Janice Rankin, Debbie Knox, Fiona MacDonald and alternate Maggie Morton were given an unlikely reprieve when Switzerland beat the Germans.

Now, after an extraordinary semi-final victory over red-hot favourites Canada yesterday, they meet Switzerland in the gold medal match.

Victory would make them the first Olympic champions from the birthplace of the sport since a team of British men won a three-way demonstration event in Chamonix in 1924.

Those men only had to beat Sweden and France. Martin's accomplishment in somehow steering her team through the minefield of a tournament which has so far lasted a marathon 12 games is even more heroic.

Martin, a housewife from Irvine with two small children, knows glory is in the bank whatever the result later today, but she found scant cause for celebration in the win over the Canadians.

"It's an all-European final for a change but we will have to play well," she said. "We will debrief, learn from the video and relax before the final. We will be going for gold for Team GB."

Curling is enjoying a huge surge in popularity. One internet section of an American newspaper reported this week that curling has received more hits into a major search engine during the Games than Anna Kournikova.

Touts confirm that curling is one of the most sought-after sports of the Games, and are selling tickets at at least twice their face value.

And why not, with all this drama. Martin's team dragged themselves back from the brink, recapturing their form as suddenly as it had deserted them as they stood poised to take a more conventional route into the last four.

They could have beaten America and Germany to go through, but they lost them both. After the Swiss rescued them, the Britons beat both Sweden and the Germans to earn their semi against Canada.

Their 6-5 win over the reigning world and Olympic champions must rank as one of these Games' biggest upsets.

Canada lost just once in the qualification procedure, and that was in their last match against the Swiss when they already knew they had topped the group. They were unbackable favourites to retain the title won by the late Sandra Schmirler four years ago.

Martin's team built on a lucky break in the fourth end, when Canadian skip Kelley Law's last stone knocked one of Martin's into the house to give the Britons a two-stone end win.

They were 5-3 up going into the eighth, and the Canadians battled back to level matters going into the final end, but crucially Martin held the hammer.

She used it to match-winning advantage, pushing it into the house at the death to wrap up a giant against-the-odds success.

Switzerland have improved since Britain inflicted their first defeat in the preliminary stages. They were the only team to beat the Canadians and swept past the United States into gold medal contention.

Martin added: "At the end of the round-robin we were not on top of our game. Now we seem to be playing like I know we should. We were under a lot of pressure but we now have got the chance to go for gold.

"The fourth end was definitely a turning point. We didn't have the hammer and to score was very good. With the big lead we were able to relax and just play our game."