Great Britain will be represented by 50 athletes at Beijing 2022 as they bid to build on the five medals won at the last Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang – Lizzy Yarnold’s skeleton gold and four bronze.
On the eve of the Games, we pick out the best medal hopes from Team GB in China.
Charlotte Bankes (snowboard cross)
Undeniably Britain’s best chance for gold on snow or ice, at the last Olympics the British-born athlete was competing in the colours of France before a switch of allegiance.
Since that shift of nationalities, she has been crowned world champion in snowboard cross and has been the athlete to beat at this season’s World Cup. As a result, she understandably arrives in China as the gold-medal favourite.
Brad Hall (bobsleigh)
That Hall has made it to Beijing at all is no mean feat after UK Sport scrapped funding for the bobsleigh programme back in 2019 and he had to scramble to raise the necessary funds to compete.
He has managed to stay afloat and, against far richer and better-equipped teams, finished fourth in the World Cup standings in the four-man bob and fifth in the two-man, sealing six podium finishes along the way.
Gus Kenworthy (freestyle skiing)
At the last two Olympics, Kenworthy was in the colours of the American team before switching nationalities to the land of his birth.
The Essex-born halfpipe skier has endured all manner of setbacks on his way to Beijing, from concussions to Covid and other injuries. If fit and firing, the former Olympic silver medallist could once more get himself onto the podium.
Kirsty Muir (freestyle skiing)
The Scottish schoolgirl is the youngest member of the British team at the age of 17 but has already been heralded as a once-in-a-generation skier.
She has proven herself in the junior ranks as a silver medallist in Big Air at the Winter Youth Olympics as well as at senior level after winning a World Cup slopestyle silver medal in only her fourth start last year.
Bruce Mouat/Jennifer Dodds (curling)
Both Mouat and Dodds compete in the men’s and women’s curling team events respectively, with Mouat as skip and Dodds as Eve Muirhead’s sidekick.
But it is in the mixed doubles where the British duo perhaps have their best chance of gold. The event was introduced at the last Games, and Mouat and Dodds are the current world champions.
Dave Ryding (alpine skiing)
A few weeks ago - and now at the age of 35 - would not have been spoken about as a realistic medal protagonist in the men’s slalom before his stunning World Cup win in Kitzbuhel.
Trying to replicate that in Beijing is no mean feat but, on his day, he has the confidence and technical skill to beat the best in the world.
