For most of January and February, Britons have endured relentless, record-breaking rain, often accompanied by a biting wind. But in recent days many will have taken solace from contemplating a very different winter landscape, as skiers, skaters and snowboarders compete beneath the purest of blue skies. As a visual spectacle, the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics have been a feast for the eyes and balm for the soul.
Given the glory of the Dolomites, that much might have been anticipated. More unexpected was a weekend of unprecedented sporting triumph for Team GB. For a nation that has not traditionally been – to put it kindly – a winter sports heavyweight, two gold medals in the space of five hours on Sunday was a moment to savour. Competing in the mixed snowboard cross, Charlotte Bankes and Huw Nightingale became the first ever British athletes to win on snow. In Milan, Tabitha Stoecker and Matt Weston hurtled down the ice track to edge out German competition in the first mixed team skeleton event.
Norway, sitting once again at the top of the medals table, will not feel that its remarkable historic dominance is under threat just yet. But the bravura performance of Bankes – who grew up in the French Alps and began her career competing for France – was a highlight of the tournament so far. Elsewhere, targeted investment is paying off.
Weston, a current double world champion, was already a hot favourite. But over the last four-year cycle between Winter Olympics, UK Sport has spent millions on building up a formidable skeleton-racing team: a fourth place in the mixed event for Freya Tarbit and Marcus Wyatt reflected the growing strength in depth. For Team GB generally, the bathos of Eddie the Eagle, the spectacularly unsuccessful British ski jumper who touched the hearts of crowds at the 1988 Winter Games, is a distant memory.
Britain’s most successful Winter Olympics ever, in a time zone congenial to primetime viewing, will surely spark growing UK interest in sports that have, for cultural and climatic reasons, remained on the margins. That will test resources and outreach. In Weston, the nation may boast the best skeleton racer in the world, but it still does not possess even one suitable ice track on which those dreaming of emulating him could try their luck. The fearless Stoecker was a gymnast and trained trapeze artist before being spotted at a talent identification event. Weston himself played rugby and practised taekwondo.
Hopefully Bankes’s scintillating performance on the slopes will inspire a new generation to take to the indoor variety in Britain, which have already nurtured the extraordinary talent of her fellow snowboarding star Mia Brookes. But for the popular cut-through of Milano Cortina 2026 to truly launch a golden age of British winter sports, the Games should become a catalyst for further investment in grassroots participation.
For now, though, the focus of many viewers will turn to an increasingly compelling and ill-tempered curling competition, in which allegations of foul play have led to calls for the use of video assistant referees or Hawk-Eye-style technology. Team GB has a chance of qualifying for the semi-finals of the men’s and women’s events, which would put more medals within touching distance in northern Italy. As we seek inspiration and distraction in the middle of a grey February, the drama may be only just beginning.
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