Katherine Grainger on why Team GB's Beijing medal haul is not make or break for Britain's Winter Olympic fortunes

Team GB bosses insist British athletes’ Beijing fortunes represent just one small step towards cracking their wider Winter Olympic conundrum.

Britain are still yet to bank a spot on the podium at the Games after UK Sport had set an ambitious target of winning three to seven medals.

Snowboard star Charlotte Bankes and curlers Bruce Mouat and Jennifer Dodds carried two of Britain’s biggest hopes but after all three failed to fire on Chinese snow and ice, Team GB’s chances of matching the five medal haul from PyeongChang 2018 appear slim.

Curling and skeleton have been traditional medal bankers for Britain but smaller sports like speed skating, figure skating, bobsleigh and luge have always struggled to churn out a consistent stream of genuine contenders.

That’s a pattern Team GB chiefs hope their Beijing Support Fund – that invested over £200,000 in smaller winter sports – will help change and Katherine Grainger, UK Sport Chair, insists enhancing British diversity remains their overarching priority heading into the next four-year cycle.

The Glaswegian, 46, said: “It’s always easy to judge how successful a team are by the number of medals they come back with, or where they place on the medal table.

“But we also recognise the Winter Olympics is such a brilliant platform for sport and a great opportunity to inspire the nation.

“Looking forward from a UK Sport point of view, we want to make it really clear that the Winter Games are a massively important part of our future strategy.

“We discuss it a lot round the board table and among the executive team – there’s a huge responsibility of where sport is going in the future and what role we play with it.

“It’s a real desire to make sure we’re not too narrowly-focused on one sport