With just a few days to go until the Pyeongchang 2018 Olympic Winter Games, here’s a selection of our all-time favourite Team GB Winter Olympic moments. From early curling and ice hockey success to figure skating and skeleton dominance and the emergence of Team GB as a force on the snow, we're starting back at the very first Olympic Winter Games... Check out our Team GB 'Five to Follow' for PyeongChang 2018 here!
Team GB’s first ever Olympic Winter Games gold came in curling at Chamonix 1924. An eight-strong team of British male curlers, selected by a specially convened committee of the Royal Caledonian Curling Club, headed to France. And they came back victories with Sweden having to settle for the silver medal and France the bronze.
Back in 1936, Team GB men’s hockey team shocked the world when they beat Canada to the gold medal. The Canadians had won four consecutive gold medals but the Brits brought an end to that run, in the process becoming the first team ever to win an Olympic, World and European Championships and the first to win all three in the same year. It was a second Olympic ice hockey medal for Team GB following bronze at Chamonix 1924.
After bronze in the ladies singles at St Moritz 1948, Jeannette Altwegg enjoyed an even greater Olympic moment at Oslo 1952 when she skated to gold – and also a place in the record books. Britain could now boast a female individual gold medallist at an Olympic Winter Games – an achievement that was not matched until Amy Williams’ skeleton gold at Vancouver 2010. Altwegg, who retired in 1952 and was awarded an OBE the following year, still remains the only British woman to have won two individual medals at a Winter Games.
The Innsbruck Games ended a 12 year wait for Team GB to win a medal; Tony Nash and Robin Dixon won the bobsleigh race after being loaned an axle bolt by the Italian bobsledder Eugenio Monti, who finished third but received the first De Coubertin Medal for sportsmanship.
The 1964 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck were actually threatened by a lack of snow. The Austrian army rushed to the rescue, carving out 20,000 ice bricks from a mountain top and transporting them to the bobsled and luge runs, and also carried 40,000 cubic meters of snow to the Alpine skiing courses.
Team GB's ambassador for Sochi 2014, Robin Cousins won gold in figure skating at the 1980 Olympic Winter Games in Lake Placid to keep the men’s title in Britain for a second successive games.
It was a Valentine’s Day to remember for the British ice couple in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia as Torvill & Dean claimed gold to keep the Olympic figure skating title in Britain for a third consecutive year. Over 24 million people tuned in to watch the pair crowned as Olympic ice skating champions who scored maximum points at the Zetra Stadium for their slow, sensuous free dance performance of Ravel's Bolero.
In 1988, Eddie "The Eagle" Edwards became the first competitor to represent Team GB in Olympic ski jumping. At the time, Edwards was the British ski jumping record holder, the world number nine in amateur speed skiing and the stunt jumping world record holder (10 cars/6 buses). Finishing last in the 70m and 90m events, he became famous as an example of a plucky underdog with his story has since been told on the silver screen.
Having made his Olympic debut at Albertville in 1992, Nicky Gooch became the first Brit to win any Olympic speed skating medal by claiming bronze two years later at the 1994 Games in Lillehammer in the men’s 500 metres.
The final, which had 5.7 million people watch live on the edge of their seats, saw skip Rhona Martin and her team beat Switzerland with the very last throw. The incredibly tense victory at the Ogden Ice Sheet saw Team GB’s women curlers secured the country's first Winter Olympics gold medal for 18 years.
Jenny Jones will forever have her name in the history books as the first Brit to win a Olympic Winter Games medal in a snow event after winning bronze in the slopestyle at Sochi 2014. It was the first time that slopestyle had been included on the Olympic programme with Jones qualifying for the final in third place. She posted a best score of 87.95 and then faced an agonising wait as her rivals tried and failed to knock her off the podium. We know we said ten winter moments, but we thought we'd throw in a bonus extra one for good measure too...
In the 15 years since women’s skeleton made its first appearance at a Olympic Winter Games, Team GB have featured on the podium every single time. It started with Alex Coomber’s bronze medal at Salt Lake City 2002 with Shelley Rudman going one better with silver four years later in Turin. And since then, Team GB have been unbeatable with first Amy Williams and then Lizzy Yarnold taking gold at Vancouver 2010 and Sochi 2014 respectively.
Sportsbeat 2018