The 24th Winter Olympic games officially begin in Beijing with the opening ceremony on Friday 4th February, with Team GB’s 50 athletes looking to top 2018’s haul of five medals.
Lizzy Arnold was the sole gold medalist for Team GB in the women’s skeleton then, with four other bronze medalists in Dominic Parsons (men’s skeleton), Izzy Atkin (women’s slopestyle), Laura Deas (women’s skeleton) and Billy Morgan (men’s big air). Team GB will be represented in 11 of the 15 disciplines at this year’s Games and there are serious hopes for several athletes flying the British flag.
Charlotte Bankes – Snowboard Cross
Ask any expert and the one name that they throw up when asked where Team GB’s most realistic hope of success will come from is Charlotte Bankes. Born in Hemel Hempstead in 1995, Bankes has actually already competed in two previous Winter Olympics, although this will be her first for Team GB as she represented France, where she moved to in 1999, in 2014 and 2018 (switching her allegiance to Great Britain shortly after).
Bankes comes into this year’s Games in rude form, having won the gold at the World Championships in Idre last year’s in the snowboard cross, going one better than the silver she won in 2019. Bankes is the favourite to come away from Beijing with a gold medal around her neck.
Brad Hall – Bobsleigh
If it is an underdog story that you are after then look no further than Brad Hall, who has defied the odds just to make it to Beijing. All UK Sport funding for bobsleigh was cut in 2019, meaning that external funding was required for the 2022 Winter Olympic cycle. Not only did Hall manage to raise the necessary funds to compete, but he also travels to Beijing to more than make up the numbers.
Hall finished the World Cup with six podium finishes, coming fourth in the four-man bob and fifth in the two-man bob. At the Games, he will partner Nick Gleeson in the two-man and then be joined by Greg Cackett and Taylor Lawrence in the four-man bob.
Gus Kenworthy – Freestyle Skiing
Freestyle skier Gus Kenworthy’s story is similar to Charlotte Bankes, in the way that he has also competed at two previous Winter Olympics but in the colours of another nation. Kenworthy, born in Chelmsford in 1991 to an American father and English mother, moved to Telluride, Colorado in 1993 and had represented the United States of America until switching allegiance to Great Britain in December 2019.
Kenworthy already has a Winter Olympic medal to his name, winning silver in Sochi in 2014 and is hopeful of going one better in Beijing, this time for Team GB in the halfpipe. It hasn’t quite been the smooth preparation for the 2022 Games that Kenworthy would have liked, however, with multiple injuries (including concussions and long Covid) hampering his build-up.
Kirsty Muir – Freestyle Skiing
Aged 17, Kirsty Muir may be Team GB’s youngest athlete but she may well just be the one to watch in Beijing. Heralded as a once-in-a-generation skier, there are high hopes for the Scot, who has already won silvers in the big air at the Winter Youth Olympics and slopestyle at the World Cup.
Muir will be competing on two fronts at the Winter Olympics in the big air and slopestyle and is expected to perform well. Muir is likely to be one of Britain’s leading hopes for many Olympics to come, regardless of the result this time around.
Bruce Mouat and Jennifer Dodds – Curling
Team GB has a decent record when it comes to Winter Olympic curling, winning medals in both the men’s and women’s events in 2014. This will be the first time that Britain will be represented in the curling mixed doubles (the second holding of the event, the first of which was in 2018) and it will be men’s skip Bruce Mouat and women’s vice-skip Jennifer Dodds.
The pair come into the event highly-fancied to replicate their success at the World Championship last year, where they defeated Norway’s Kristin Skaslien and Magnus Nedregotten 9-7 in the final. Additionally, both Mount and Dodds helped their men’s and women’s teams achieve gold at the European Curling Championships in 2021.
Everyone at Fen Regis Trophies wishes Team GB the very best of luck and hope to see plenty of medals making their way back home. On our website, you can find a range of trophies and medals perfect for your presentation, so why not take a look at what we have to offer today?