Great Britain at the Winter Olympics – 5 Biggest Successes

Great Britain has won 31 medals from 23 Winter Olympics Games and here's our look back on five of the most memorable Team GB moments.

Lizzy Yarnold

The United Kingdom may not provide the best conditions to get into Winter Olympic sports but there has been plenty of success stories for Great Britain at the prestigious Games, including a record-breaking feat in 2018.

In total, Great Britain have won 31 medals from 23 Games (11 gold, 4 silver and 16 bronze) to sit 19th in the all-time medal table, some 337 medals behind leaders Norway.

Running through the UK’s 5 biggest successes at the Games, we look back at Chamonix to kick off the list and the superb performance from GB’s men’s curling team in south-eastern France.

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1924 – GB Men’s Curling Gold – William Jackson, Thomas Murray, Robin Welsh, Laurence Jackson

This was the first curling event in Olympic history, which was contested only by men, and it was GB who managed to end up on top of the podium after beating Sweden and France, who were the only other teams participating.

This remains GB’s only men’s curling gold in the history of the Games, with the team of David Murdoch, Greg Drummond, Scott Andrews, Michael Goodfellow and Tom Brewster coming close to matching this feat when claiming silver in 2014.

1984 – Figure Skating Gold – Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean

Sarajevo was the setting for, arguably, the greatest performance in figure skating history back in 1984 from Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean, who are the only pair to win gold in this event for GB.

The duo received 12 perfect 6.0s and six 5.9s, which included artistic impression scores of 6.0 from every judge, as they became the highest-scoring figure skaters of all time for a single programme when skating to Maurice Ravel’s Bolero.

2002 – GB Women’s Curling Gold – Rhona Martin, Debbie Knox, Fiona MacDonald, Janice Rankin, Margaret Morton

After the men’s curling success in 1924, GB had to wait 78 years to clinch a second curling gold and this was achieved by Rhona Martin, Debbie Knox, Fiona MacDonald, Janice Rankin, Margaret Morton.

The Scottish quintet captured the hearts of the British public during their sensational performance in Salt Lake City, where they edged past Canada 6-5 in the semi-final before beating Switzerland 4-3 in the final to claim GB’s first gold since Torvill and Dean.

2010 – GB Skeleton Gold – Amy Williams

After three bronze medals and one silver in skeleton, Amy Williams made history for GB at 2010 Vancouver when becoming the first British athlete to win gold in the event. The now 39-year-old clocked a time of 3:35.64 to win the top prize in Canada, ahead of the German duo of Kerstin Szymkowiak (3:36.20) and Anja Huber (3:36.36) who took silver and bronze, respectively.

2014 and 2018 – GB Skelton Gold – Lizzy Yarnold

After having to wait so long for skeleton gold with Williams’ success in 2010, little did Team GB know that would be the start of a streak of three straight gold medals in the event.

Lizzy Yarnold picked up the gold in 2014 in Sochi, clocking a time of 3:52.89 to beat American Noelle Pikus-Pace, before the Kent-born star returned four years later in PyeongChang to become the only person, male or female, to successfully defend her Olympic skeleton title.

The 33-year-old is Great Britain’s most successful Winter Olympian.

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