Winter Olympics 2022: Impressive Team GB contenders could make history in Beijing

To the discerning sports fan, the names of Great British Winter Olympic champions just roll off the tongue.

John Curry in 1976, with his triple salchow and toe loops. Robin Cousins’ epic long programme to snatch gold four years later in Lake Placid. Then Sarajevo in 1984, Torvill and Dean. Brilliance and Bolero.

The reason we remember them so fondly is because they are so few and far between. Go grab yourself a pen and paper and try to remember all 29 GB golds from the London 2012 Olympics. Exactly. The scarcity is what makes it all the more special.

They also have something only time can buy, and that’s dewy eyed nostalgia, and the women’s curling team of 2002 is already on this hallowed list, as Rhona Martin sent a nation stone crazy, skipping Britain to glory in Salt Lake City.

And who knew we had become world-beaters at sliding down a frozen sheet of ice, head first on a souped-up baking tray?

I’m willing to bet the names of Amy Williams and Lizzy Yarnold, and their three consecutive skeleton successes, will still be chilling the bones for decades to come.

Going back to the retroactively crowned first Winter Olympics in 1924, Great Britain have a grand total of 11 golds, and never more than one at any games.

However, could this be the first time we hear God Save The Queen played twice between the opening and closing ceremonies?

Well, I wouldn’t use the word probable but it is certainly not beyond the realms of possibility. Leading the way is Charlotte Bankes in the snowboard cross, a sport that could capture our imaginations in the same way BMX did last year, as Beth Shriever pedalled her way to Olympic glory in Tokyo.

It is very similar. Fast and furious, thrills and spills, with bumps, jumps and tight turns, only on ice.