A total of 50 athletes will be representing Great Britain at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, with many of the competitors hoping to challenge for medals.
Expectations will be high that Team GB can better the five medals they claimed at the 2018 Games in Pyeongchang, with that haul including four bronzes and a gold from Lizzy Yarnold in the women’s skeleton.
Yarnold has since retired from competition and will therefore not be competing in Beijing, but there are still plenty of candidates to follow in her footsteps and makes these Games one of the most successful Team GB have ever enjoyed at the Winter Olympics.
Bankes is Britain’s Main Hope for Gold
There is no doubting who Britain’s main gold medal hope is heading into Beijing, with snowboarder Charlotte Bankes being tipped as the one to beat in the women’s snowboard cross.
Bankes will be competing at her second Olympics, but this will be the first time she has represented Britain at the Games after competing under the French flag in 2018.
Since switching allegiances to the country of her birth, Bankes has gone from strength to strength and underlined her credentials as the world’s best with victory at last year’s World Championship.
Next on her list of aspirations will be to win an Olympic gold medal in Beijing, although she is likely to face strong competition from, among others, French athlete Chloe Trespeuch and the United States’ Faye Gulini,
Freestyle Skiers Could Prosper on Beijing Slopes
Great Britain have medal hopes in both the men’s and women’s freestyle skiing, although the two main contenders are at opposite ends of their careers in terms of experience.
In the men’s halfpipe, Gus Kenworthy will be competing at his third Olympics, but first under the British flag, as he was part of Team USA at the Games in 2014 and 2018, winning a silver medal at the former in the slopestyle.
The Essex-born athlete will be keen to add another medal this year, as will Kirsty Muir in the women’s event, with the 17-year-old set to compete at her first Olympics.
Muir was aged just nine when Kenworthy was winning his silver medal, but she also has genuine medal hopes after claiming a silver in the Big Air at the 2020 Winter Youth Olympics.
Curling Could Provide Medal Success
Curling has been a sport where Great Britain have enjoyed plenty of success over recent Games, most notably in 2002 when Rhona Martin led the women’s team to gold.
Team GB will once again take a strong curling team with them to Beijing, but their main medal hope could lie in the mixed doubles tournament in which Bruce Mouat and Jennifer Dodds are expected to challenge.
The duo boast plenty of experience, with Mouat also captaining the men’s team and Dodds acting as vice-skipper to Eve Muirhead on the women’s, but it is as a pair where they could enjoy the most success, especially as they are the current mixed doubles world champions.