British sport body vows to "learn big lessons" after Team GB disappointment

Great Britain’s curling teams led by Eve Muirhead and Bruce Mouat gave the nation plenty to cheer about at the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022.

Muirhead led her women’s team to the gold medal on the final day of Beijing 2022, some 15 hours after Mouat’s rink took silver.

But those were Team GB's only two medals in Beijing in what was a disappointing Games.

And UK Sport, the national government agency responsible for funding Olympic and Paralympic sport, has vowed to "learn big lessons" after the team failed to meet expectations.

Competition at Beijing 2022 was preceded by high hopes across a number of sports including skeleton, bobsleigh, freestyle skiing, snowboard, alpine skiing and curling.

The British Olympic Association and UK Sport suggested a target of between three and seven medals was in their sights, which at the higher end would have taken the nation past its record tally of five achieved at both Sochi 2014 and PyeongChang 2018.

And UK Sport chair Katherine Grainger, herself an Olympic champion rower, said, "Curling lifted the team, but a lot of athletes would have been disappointed with the performances out there and we need to find out the reasons why that happened.

"I do think we'll come back stronger because of this. It's a horrible thing to say but, having done it as an athlete, those huge disappointments are where you have the biggest opportunity to learn. We will learn big lessons from this and I think it gives us all an extra bit of hunger."

One explanation could be the pandemic with Grainger, as reported by The Scotsman, adding, "It has been an extraordinarily difficult Games to lead into... because if you're used to flying down enormous mountains, you can't recreate that in your back garden."

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