The flame officially went out on the Gangwon 2024 Winter Youth Olympic Games (YOG) yesterday, bringing 13 days of incredible and historic sporting action to a close in South Korea.
The Games was officially Team GB’s most successful winter event on record, with the team securing six medals in total: four gold medals, along with a silver and a bronze, to finish ninth overall in the medal table.
Taking the headlines in the first week was alpine skier Zak Carrick-Smith, who claimed two gold medals and one silver to make him Team GB’s most successful winter athlete ever.
He became the third Brit to win gold at a Winter Youth Olympic Games and the first-ever to win an alpine skiing medal for Team GB at any Olympic event, following his medals in the alpine combined event (gold), slalom (gold) and giant slalom (silver).
Carrick-Smith, son of four-time Olympian Emma Carrick-Anderson, said: “It’s absolutely unbelievable. I was overwhelmed knowing I was on the podium and it still hasn’t quite sunk in to be the first British person to win in alpine skiing in any Olympics, I’m just over the moon.”
Teammate Molly Butler secured a series of solid results, with her best finish coming in the women’s giant slalom, where she placed 10th with a combined time of 1:44.02 from her two runs.
Away from the slopes it was a clean sweep for Team GB’s curlers, winning gold medals in both the mixed team and mixed doubles formats.
Logan Carson, Tia Laurie, Holly Burke and Archie Hyslop became Team GB’s first-ever Youth Olympic curling champions, claiming gold in the mixed team event following a 7-5 victory over Denmark.
Logan Carson, Team GB skip, said: “It’s absolutely amazing, I’m really proud of the team and what we’ve done this week. We couldn’t have done it without a massive team effort and to come from behind to win is pretty special.”
The story then repeated itself when mixed doubles pair of Callie Soutar and Ethan Brewster also clinched gold with a similar narrow victory over Denmark’s Jacob Schmidt and Katrine Schmidt (7-6) in the gold medal final.
The Brits found themselves 3-0 up after winning the first two ends with a deuce and single, but Denmark came back strong with two deuces of their own. The rivals had the hammer going into the final end with the score 7-5 to Great Britain, but Soutar and Brewster forced Denmark to only register one point to seal the victory.
Ashlie Slatter and Atl Ongay-Perez completed Team GB’s medal tally, winning bronze in the ice dance competition to secure Britain’s first Olympic medal in figure skating since Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean at the 1994 Lillehammer Olympic Winter Games.
The pair started the day in seventh place of the ice dance competition but received 89.25 from their free dance performance - a new personal best and the second highest score of the day – to achieve a combined score of 140.16 and in turn, the Youth Olympic bronze medal.
Slatter said: “It's such a shock, I can't think of anything else to say, it's just such a shock. After the rhythm dance result we really wanted to go out there and just enjoy it, but the crowd really got behind us it was amazing."
Ongay-Perez said: “It’s not quite settled in yet. We came into it without putting any pressure on ourselves today and we just skated from the heart. It's a reminder of all the hours we put in and all the people that are still at home watching us that helped us to get here."
Slatter and Ongay-Perez were later given the honour of being Team GB’s flagbearers for the Gangwon 2024 Closing Ceremony.
In the singles event, unranked seventeen-year-old Tao MacRae finished 12th with a total score of 171.61.
Freestyle skiers Axel Rose Green and Jake Dade both secured top ten finishes across the ski cross events, coming 6th and 7th respectively in their individual competitions, then 6th overall in the mixed event. Charlie Cooper finished 14th in his panel in the men’s individual race.
Elsewhere, Kaia Hatton made history by becoming the youngest British athlete ever to compete in luge when she finished 13th in the women’s singles competition. Bobsleigh athlete Lennon Smith also competed at the Alpensia Olympic Sliding Centre, where he outperformed his ranking to finish 15th overall.
In Hoengseong, Teiva Hamaini competed in the men’s snowboard slopestyle event, finishing 14th with a score of 33.75, and the men’s snowboard big air qualification finishing 17th with a best score of 40.00. While, snowboarder Siddhartha Ullah competed in the halfpipe competition, finishing 13th with a score of 46.50 after two runs.
Team GB’s cross-country skiers all registered top 50 finishes, with Elspeth Cruickshank recording the best ranking (43rd) in the women’s 7.5km classic. Biathlete Josie Clifford placed 74th in the women's 10k individual, scoring the 10th best shooting time, while Graham Benson and Tom Smith finished 59th and 74th respectively in the men's 12.5km individual event. Clifford and Benson placed 25th in the biathlon single mixed relay.
On the ice, Opening Ceremony flagbearer Willem Murray registered two personal bests in the 1500m and 1000m short track races, while our men’s 3-on-3 ice hockey team, placed 6th overall with a record of two wins and five defeats from their seven matches.
Results:
Alpine Skiing
Women's super-G:
Molly Butler - 27th
Men's super-G:
Zak Carrick-Smith - 14th
Women's Alpine Combined Slalom:
Molly Butler - 16th
Men's Alpine Combined Slalom:
Zak Carrick-Smith - GOLD
Women's Giant Slalom:
Molly Butler - 10th
Men's Giant Slalom:
Zak Carrick-Smith - SILVER
Men's Slalom:
Zak Carrick-Smith - GOLD
Women's Slalom:
Molly Butler - 12th
Mixed Parallel Team:
Zak Carrick-Smith & Molly Butler - (1/8 - Sweden 3-1 GBR)
Biathlon
Women's 10k individual:
Josie Clifford - 74th
Men's 12.5k individual:
Graham Benson - 59th
Tom Smith - 74th
Single Mixed Relay 6km+7.5km(W+M):
Josie Clifford and Graham Benson - 25th
Women's 6km Sprint:
Josie Clifford - 71st
Men's 7.5km Sprint:
Graham Benson - 44th
Bobsleigh
Men's Monobob:
Lennon Smith - 15th
Cross-Country Skiing
Women's Sprint Free Qualification:
Elspeth Cruickshank - 44th
Sophie Forth - 45th
Men's Sprint Free Qualification:
Thomas Duncan - 45th
Women's 7.5km Classic Qualification:
Elspeth Cruickshank - 43rd
Sophie Forth - 50th
Men's 7.5km Classic Qualification:
Thomas Duncan - 47th
Curling
Mixed Team
Mixed Team Round Robin Session 1, Group B: Denmark 6 - 7 Great Britain
Mixed Team Round Robin Session 2, Group B: Germany 7 - 4 Great Britain
Mixed Team Round Robin Session 3, Group B: Great Britain 6 - 3 Canada
Mixed Team Round Robin Session 4, Group B: Great Britain 3 - 2 Republic of Korea
Mixed Team Round Robin Session 5, Group B: Italy 5 - 7 Great Britain
Mixed Team Round Robin Session 6, Group B: Switzerland 3 - 8 Great Britain
Mixed Team Round Robin Session 7, Group B: Great Britain 9 - 4 Brazil
Mixed Team Semi-Final: Switzerland 6 vs 8 Great Britain
Mixed Team Final: GOLD - Denmark 5 - 7 Great Britain
Mixed Doubles
Mixed Doubles Round Robin Session 2, Group A: Great Britain 18 - 0 Nigeria
Mixed Doubles Round Robin Session 7, Group A: Republic of Korea 11 - 2 Great Britain
Mixed Doubles Round Robin Session 7, Group A: Great Britain 8 - 3 Czechia
Mixed Doubles Round Robin Session 7, Group A: Great Britain 8 - 4 Hungary
Mixed Doubles Round Robin Session 15, Group A: Canada 6 - 7 Great Britain
Mixed Doubles Quarter-Final: Great Britain 7 - 5 Germany
Mixed Doubles Semi-Final: Sweden 5 - 6 Great Britain
Mixed Doubles Final: GOLD - Denmark 6 - 7 Great Britain
Figure Skating
Men's Single Skating
Tao MacRae - 12th
Ice Dance
Ashlie Slatter & Atl Ongay-Perez - BRONZE - 3rd
Freestyle Skiing
Women's Ski Cross:
Axel Rose Green - Small Final 6th
Men's Ski Cross:
Jake Dade - Small Final 7th
Charlie Cooper - 14th
Mixed Ski Cross:
Jake Dade & Axel Rose Green - Small Final 2nd
Ice Hockey
Day One:
Men's 3-on-3 Tournament Preliminary Round #2: Austria 12 - 3 Great Britain
Day Two:
Men's 3-on-3 Tournament Preliminary Round #6: Great Britain 1 - 24 Latvia
Men's 3-on-3 Tournament Preliminary Round #9: Denmark 14 - 4 Great Britain
Day Three:
Men's 3-on-3 Tournament Preliminary Round #15: Great Britain 7 - 17 Poland
Men's 3-on-3 Tournament Preliminary Round #19: Great Britain 8 - 5 Spain
Day Four:
Men's 3-on-3 Tournament Preliminary Round #22: Chinese Taipei 3 - 10 Great Britain
Men's 3-on-3 Tournament Preliminary Round #27: Kazakhstan 22 - 13 Great Britain
Luge
Women's singles:
Kaia Hatton - 16th
Short Track Speed Skating
Men's 1500m:
Willem Murray - Final B - 3rd
Freddie Polak - PEN
Men's 1000m:
Willem Murray - Final B - 3rd
Freddie Polak - Heat 6 - 3rd
Men's 500m:
Willem Murray - Quarter finals - 4th
Freddie Polak - Heat 9 - 3rd
Snowboarding:
Slopestyle:
Teiva Hamaini - 14th
Big Air:
Teiva Hamaini - 17th
Halfpipe:
Siddhartha Ullah - 13th
All results and official reports can be viewed at Olympics.com