Winter Olympics 2022 - Can Team GB get on the medal table? Curling leads hopes for the podium

Updated 17/02/2022 at 04:28 GMT

Team GB may not be on the medal table after 12 days of competition at the Winter Olympics, but all is not lost yet. Bruce Mouat and his men’s curling rink are in exceptional form, hopes remain for success in bobsleigh, while freestyle skier Zoe Atkin is yet to make her Games debut. Watch every moment of the Games on discovery+.

'Never stopped fighting' - GB's men overcome ROC for crucial curling victory

There may well come a moment at the Winter Olympics where the Team GB medal hopes fade, but we are not there yet.

Despite finishing with five medals at the last two Games, there has been disappointment so far at Beijing 2022. World champion Charlotte Bankes was a huge hope in the snowboard slopestyle, but was unable to make it past the quarter-finals, while Bruce Mouat and Jen Dodds - the mixed curling world champions - lost in the bronze medal match.

But Mouat is still Britain’s best hope of stepping on to the podium in China, even if it does look unlikely the total tally of five medals from the past two Games will be matched. Here is why Team GB fans should not be losing hope…

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Curling

Bruce Mouat’s men’s curling rink are in scintillating form at Beijing 2022. The skip has recovered brilliantly after admitting he felt “gutted” to miss out on a medal in the mixed event and they secured their place in the semi-finals with two matches to go.

After nine matches, there has been just one defeat. That was to the US, who they meet in the last four at 12.05pm GMT on Thursday.

Mouat’s team have already secured the hammer - the last stone advantage for the first end - meaning they will be slight favourites to go through to the gold medal match.

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Bobsleigh

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The 2-man bobsleigh did not go to plan for Brad Hall and Nick Gleeson, suffering poor opening runs and crashing in the third heat, before finishing 11th overall.

But Hall’s men have impressed throughout the World Cup season and finished fourth overall in the 4-man, with Greg Cackett and Taylor Lawrence coming in to join them. There is a genuine chance of a medal if Hall can master the Yanqing National Sliding Centre, having regularly placed on the podium on the regular circuit.

Initial training runs would suggest ideas are still being tried out, having finished 18th and 20th in their opening two attempts down the course. There are four left, before the competition starts for real on Saturday.

Mica McNeill and Montell Douglas appear to be coming good at just the right time in the 2-woman event. They finished second at a World Cup event in Sigulda last month and placed third in their first two training runs at the Games, before losing time in the next two.

You can only take so much from training runs, but after training during Covid restrictions on a custom made push start in a County Durham back garden, getting on to the podium would be a significant achievement - particularly for Douglas, who competed as a sprinter at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Freestyle skiing

Britain’s first confirmed Olympic skiing medallist, Izzy Atkin, agonisingly had to admit defeat in her race to be fit for the Games after she broke her pelvis before Christmas, but there are reasons to be excited about her younger sister, Zoe.

The 19-year-old is a halfpipe bronze medallist from the World Championships last year and she also has a World Cup victory to her name. Atkin has also had to overcome injury to make Beijing, having suffered concussion in November, but she will be a big contender for a medal when competition starts on Thursday, followed by the final on Friday (from 0130 GMT).

Gus Kenworthy performs a trick during training at the Winter Olympics in Beijing

Image credit: Getty Images

Gus Kenworthy is Britain’s most successful Olympic athlete at the Games with a slopestyle silver medal from Sochi 2014 - but that was while representing Team GB. The 30-year-old was born in Essex to a British mum and moved to America at a young age, and he switched allegiance in competition three years ago.

Kenworthy has since become a TV personality, starring in American Horror Story and appearing as a guest judge on Ru Paul’s Drag Race. He is one of the highest profile openly gay athletes on the planet and his kiss with a now ex-boyfriend went viral at PyeongChang 2018.

He has spoken about wanting to lift the union flag for his mum and as a seasoned performer, he may get his dream send off in the halfpipe (final from 0130 GMT Saturday).