The big British Winter wrap up

Winter Sports 31 Mar 23

Great Britain. The land of rolling green hills, mellow river valleys and history-making winter sport athletes.

In the afterglow of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, British athletes have soared into the history books and claimed the 2022/23 season for their own.

With a total of 54 medals at World and European Championships and on the World Cup circuit, including a host of crystal globes to add to the sparkle, success has come in every winter sport that Britain currently competes in.

From the youngest-ever world champion to the first speed skating world medallist since 1951, it has been a season to remember.

Stunning snowsport success

At 16 years old, most British teenagers are focussing on their GCSEs and school. Mia Brookes was becoming the youngest world champion in snowboarding history.The

Cheshire-born champion landed the first ever 1440 by a woman to be crowned women's slopestyle world champion at the World Freestyle Ski Championships in Georgia.

In fact, British teenagers dominated headlines with Kirsty Muir picking up two bronzes in the X Games slopestyle and big air.

Zoe Atkin's ski halfpipe world silver might have come too late for her teenage years, but the 20-year-old added to the flurry of podiums in Georgia, scoring a giant 94.50 on her second run to confirm her status as a world medallist.

Add that to her X Games gold and World Cup silver and it is clear that the 2019 world bronze medallist continues to dominate the halfpipe.

Olympian Charlotte Bankes stormed to crystal globe glory for the second season running in the snowboard cross as she picked up a total of six stunning World Cup victories and one bronze.

Her dominating World Cup form trickled down to inspire teammate Huw Nightingale as the two Brits soared to World Championship gold in the mixed team snowboard cross in Georgia, Nightingale's first-ever senior international medal.

In the ski cross, Ollie Davies picked up his first World Cup podium with a silver in Reiteralm whilst Dave 'the Rocket' Ryding flew onto the podium with World Cup slalom silver in Kitzbuehel.

And it did not stop there as Makayla Gerken Schofield grabbed Britain's second-ever moguls World Cup podium and Andrew Musgrave clinched bronze in the men's cross-country 10km World Cup event in Beitostolen.

Sliding into the history books

There was even more history in the sliding this year as Matt Weston and Team Hall just kept on winning.

Bobsleigh boys Brad Hall, Taylor Lawrence, Greg Cackett and Arran Gulliver ended an 84-year wait for a four-man bobsleigh world championship medal in Switzerland.

They won silver in St. Moritz to become the first British quartet to step onto a world podium since Frederick McEvoy steered GB to silver in 1939.

In January, Team Hall became the first-ever British sled to be crowned European Champions with a show-stopping victory by just 0.09 seconds and with overall silver on the World Cup circuit, the band of brothers have undeniably cemented themselves within British bobsleigh folklore.

And that is only the four-man, as overall World Cup bronze in the two-man for pilot Hall, pushed by both Cackett and Lawrence over the season added to the success.

Skeleton star Weston started the 2022/23 season unsure of his role in the sport and ended it as world champion.

Weston thought about quitting the sport after Beijing 2022 but turned his disappointment into fuel and became the first British man to be crowned world skeleton champion in 15 years, winning the European Championships too.

Weston was joined on the overall World Cup podium by skeleton teammate Marcus Wyatt, the two finishing second and third respectively after an incredible season, as Craig Thompson, Laura Deas and Brogan Crowley all added to the medal haul with mixed team World silver and bronze.

Excelling on ice

Cornelius Kersten became GB’s first long-track speed skating world medallist since 1951 with bronze in Heerenveen.

Skating to glory, the 29-year-old moved up from 12th to third in the final to clinch the first podium in 72 years and join his girlfriend Ellia Smeding in the speed-skating history books.

Smeding became the first-ever British female to win a medal at an international long-track event with bronze in the 1000m at the European Championships.

Born to dance, Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson were fan favourites on the figure skating circuit this season.

The ice dance duo became Britain's most successful pairing since Torvill and Dean with a brilliant silver medal at the European Championships and a fourth-place finish at Worlds, narrowly missing out on a medal.

With a silver at the MK John Wilson Trophy in Sheffield as part of the ISU Grand Prix circuit, the two have shot to international stardom with their Lady Gaga-inspired routine.

Looking back on Beijing 2022 holds fond memories of brushes and curling stones for many.

But with Eve Muirhead no longer at skip, it was Rebecca Morrison's turn to lead the charge for the women and sweep to European bronze in their first-ever senior international competition.

For the men, it was a case of being crowned European champions once more as the Olympic silver medallists were led to victory by skip Bruce Mouat.

With the winter season now at an end, it finishes with one last bang for Britain on the ice as Team Mouat take to the rink once more in the men's World Curling Championships before Mouat and Jen Dodds look to defend their 2021 mixed doubles world title.

And with a history-making season of success already behind us, and Milan-Cortina now just three years away, the legacy for British winter sport has well and truly been changed forever.

Sportsbeat 2023

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