Rosamund Musgrave insists the rest of the world are accepting that Great Britain mean business when it comes to winter sports following the success of Team GB at the Sochi 2014 Games.
Competing in her maiden Winter Olympics, Musgrave finished 66th in the women’s 10k classical while she finished 42nd in the sprint event.
And while she was some way off challenging for a medal in Russia, Team GB enjoyed their most successful Games for 90 years as they equalled the medal count from 1924 with four – one gold, a silver and two bronzes.
The cross-country contingent also showed improvement from four years previously in Vancouver as Musgrave’s brother Andrew reached the quarter-finals in the sprint – a far cry on his result from Canada when he was 58th.
At the age of 27 Rosamund was the oldest member of the British cross-country squad, but she is confident that she and her teammates will continue to improve towards PyeongChang 2018 and beyond.
“We have improved quite a lot quite steadily,” she said. “If you look at four years ago I think our best result was below 50th place.
“So this year we had plenty of results in the 20s and 30s which is a pretty big jump.
“We used to turn up to cross-country races and people would say ‘Oh, there’s the Brits – they’re going to be at the back’.
“But now we already get a lot more respect as people realise that we’re not just there to take part any more, we are competitive.
“It does make a lot of difference as you have a lot more confidence and don’t feel as intimidated.
“You feel like you belong there and that makes a really big difference to how you perform.”
© Sportsbeat 2014