Winter Olympics 2022 - Curling saved Team GB’s blushes, but UK Sport must decide whether to stick or twist

As the Winter Olympics progressed, anxiety began to grow that Team GB might not return home from Beijing with a medal at all. Instead, we ended with the euphoria of a golden moment right at the end — one glorious moment to remind us what the Games are all about — and now it is down to UK Sport to decide whether it wants more of the same.

Gold for the women’s curling team and silver for the men saved Britain the embarrassment of leaving China with a zero on the medal table, but one gold and one silver was also the worst medal haul since Vancouver 2010, when only Amy Williams’ skeleton title registered. Ad/> On paper, it looks like a regression.

At the summer Olympics, momentum has steadily continued since London 2012. But the reality is that GB have relied so heavily on skeleton for success at the Winter Games, and now we are in a transition period — and coronavirus has caused issues for athletes travelling to train on snow.

/> Beijing 2022Beijing Today Day 16 — The best bits from 2022 Winter Olympic Games16 HOURS AGO UK Sport — which decides how public and National Lottery funds are allocated to different sports — insists it wants Team GB to be a “force” at the Winter Olympics, but they are a long way off it. It feels like we are approaching a point where there needs to be a serious cash injection, because the ambition is not being backed up with cash across the board.

There is not an endless pot of money, and the issue of public funding is sensitive as we come out of a global pandemic, but if we are serious about challenging consistently on the world stage, more facilities are needed and funding gaps will need to be addressed. It's curling home The best moment of the Games for Britain came hours before the closing