Winter Olympics: Who are the Team GB ones to watch in Beijing?
- Published
Team GB are taking 50 athletes to the Winter Olympics
Qualification has been ticked off and those selected for Team GB are in China going through their final preparations with the Beijing Winter Olympics almost upon us.
Great Britain won five medals at both the last two Winter Games - Sochi in 2014 and Pyeongchang four years later - and UK Sport believes between three and seven could be won in China.
So who could be on the podium in 2022? BBC Sport takes a look at the ones to watch.
Team Hall (bobsleigh)
Brad Hall, Taylor Lawrence, Nick Gleeson and Greg Cackett
Dates of competition: 14-15 February (two-man); 19-20 February (four-man)
Brad Hall's sleds have enjoyed a very successful 2021-22 season, with the four-man - Hall, Greg Cackett, Nick Gleeson and Taylor Lawrence - winning three World Cup silvers, while in the two-man, Hall and either Cackett or Gleeson have won two silvers and a bronze, as well as silver at October's test event in Beijing.
After a 2020-21 season beset with injuries and Covid, problems exacerbated by their need to self-fund after UK Sport stripped funding, the team's resilience has paid off with their efforts this season propelling Hall to fifth in the two-man world rankings, and fourth in the four-man.
Not since 2014 has GB won an Olympic bobsleigh medal - awarded five years later after two Russian crews were disqualified for doping violations - but 2022 certainly looks promising.
Charlotte Bankes (snowboard cross)
Charlotte Bankes
Date of competition: 9 February
Charlotte Bankes is a Winter Olympics veteran having competed in Sochi and Pyeongchang for France, but Beijing 2022 will see her make her Olympic debut in the red, white and blue of Team GB.
Since defecting in late 2018, the British-born snowboarder has achieved eight World Cup podium finishes, including four golds, and been crowned snowboard cross world champion.
That includes back-to-back World Cup titles in January for the 26-year-old, who enters the Games ranked number one in the world in her discipline after five podium finishes in six races this season.
Bruce Mouat (curling)
Bruce Mouat and Jen Dodds
Dates of competition: 2-8 February (mixed doubles); 9-19 February (men's)
Bruce Mouat will be the first British curler to compete in two events at an Olympics when he takes to the sheet in both the men's and the mixed doubles.
The 27-year-old enjoyed incredible success on the ice in 2021, winning the mixed doubles world title with fellow Scot Jen Dodds - they are currently ranked first in the world - as well as taking men's world silver with Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie and Hammy McMillan.
Mouat's men's rink also won European and Grand Slam gold for Scotland. All six competitors are making their Winter Olympics debut in Beijing.
Kirsty Muir (freestyle skiing - slopestyle and big air)
Kirsty Muir
Dates of competition: 13-14 February
At just 17, Kirsty Muir will be the youngest member of Team GB in Beijing but age is just a number when it comes to prowess on skis.
The Scottish freestyle skier burst on to the scene when, aged just 13, she won all three freeski titles on offer at the 2018 Brits Championships, and won big air silver at the Youth Olympic Games in 2020.
In March 2021, she won her first World Cup medal with slopestyle silver in Aspen and has recorded two top five finishes in the discipline this season.
Matt Weston (skeleton)
Matt Weston
Dates of competition: 10-11 February
Matt Weston became the first British man to win a skeleton World Cup in almost 14 years when he took gold in a remarkable three-way tie in Innsbruck in November, following silver on the same track in December 2020.
While it is Team GB's women who have historically hit the skeleton headlines at Olympics gone by - winning the last three gold medals and winning medals at every Games since the women's event was added to the programme - it is 24-year-old Weston who has impressed this season, adding three top 10 finishes to his podium appearance.
A former rugby player, Weston also competed in taekwondo internationally, and finished the 2021 calendar year ranked 10th in the skeleton world rankings.
Zoe Atkin (freestyle skiing - halfpipe)
Zoe Atkin
Dates of competition: 17-18 February
Zoe Atkin's older sister, Izzy, won Team GB's first ever Olympic skiing medal in 2018 but it is her 18-year-old sibling who is looking to get on the podium in Beijing.
Freestyle skier Zoe Atkin competes in the halfpipe and won bronze at the 2021 World Championships to claim the first major medal of her senior career.
Following that success, she won silver at the World Cup in Aspen last March and has recorded three top-10 finishes so far this season.
Dave Ryding (alpine skiing)
Dave Ryding
Dates of competition: 16 February (men's slalom), 19 February (mixed team parallel)
Ryding heads into the Olympics after a historic win in Kitzbuhel where he became the first Briton to win an alpine World Cup, claiming slalom glory in January.
The 35-year-old from Lancashire has been in good form this season and his win was no fluke after years of mixing it with the best technical skiers in the world.
Britain has never won an alpine medal at the Olympics - Alain Baxter did finish third in Salt Lake City in 2002 but subsequently had the medal taken off him for failing a drugs test.
The Scot had a trace of the banned substance methamphetamine found in his system - which came from a US version of a menthol inhaler, which the UK version did not have among its ingredients.
He appealed against the decision but the Court of Arbitration for sport upheld the IOC's stance to strip him of the bronze but did add: "The panel is not without sympathy for Mr Baxter, who appears to be a sincere and honest man who did not intend to obtain a competitive advantage in the race."
Baxter is Ryding's hero and he will be hunting for medal success in the slalom and the team event in what will be his fourth Games.