Winter Olympics 2022 - ‘They’ll medal in four years’ - Williams pleads for patience and funding after skeleton flop

Updated 11/02/2022 at 15:49 GMT

After delivering a skeleton medal at every Winter Olympics since it was reintroduced to the programme in 2002, it looks likely Team GB will fly home from Beijing without one. Matt Weston and Marcus Wyatt finished 15th and 16th in the men's competition, while Laura Deas and Brogan Crowley are struggling in the women's event. But Williams is sure they will come good in Milan-Cortina.

Williams backs GB knowledge on how to 'bring home the medals'

British gold medallist Amy Williams has pleaded for patience and continued funding from UK Sport, with Team GB looking likely to end their run of winning a skeleton medal at every Winter Olympics since it was reintroduced to the programme in 2002.

Matt Weston and Marcus Wyatt finished 15th and 16th respectively in the men's competition, while PyeongChang 2018 bronze medallist Laura Deas and debutant Brogan Crowley sit 21st and 22nd at the halfway point of the women's event.

But Eurosport expert Williams, the Vancouver 2010 champion who works with British Skeleton and Bobsleigh in a mentoring capacity, believes the money needs to keep coming, as she is convinced Weston, Wyatt and Crowley will come good ahead of Milan-Cortina 2026.

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"We have a young wave of athletes coming through that just don't have the experience," she said in The Cube.

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"The aim in their programme cycle was to be medalling in four years' time. I’ll put a large bet on them that they’ll medal in four years. This was always early for them.

"They’ve still only had a few World Cups, World Championships, so it’s a very different field, they would have learnt massively from this. You need to have the funding, the money, to keep that trickling on and to continue that success.

"We know in Great Britain how to bring home medals, we can do it, when the moment is right, and personally these Games were four years too early for British skeleton."

Team GB look likely to end a run of winning a skeleton medal at every Olympics since the sport was reintroduced to the programme in 2002. Success has mostly been built on talent ID, but with no home ice track and only a push track to train on at the University of Bath, there has also been a focus on scientific innovation.

Marginal gains have been sought through skin suits and sleds, all within the rules, and much of the technology has been looked at with envy from rival nations. In Beijing, those sought after gains have not been achieved.

This system has built up a lot of trust from UK Sport, which made skeleton the most funded individual winter sport for this Olympic cycle, if ski and snowboard are split in two (GB Snowsport received just over £9.5m combined). Skeleton was given £6,425,000 for the Beijing cycle and in comparison, bobsleigh, where Brad Hall and Mica McNeill’s teams are in contention, received £120,000.

UK Sport has steadily changed its approach to funding, rewarding potential as well as medal performance. But in terms of investment, comparisons could be made with diving - which won a gold and two bronze medals at Tokyo 2020 with around £750,000 more, or modern pentathlon, which produced two golds for around £1m less.

Reviewing sport this way is not necessarily fair - sometimes things do not go to plan, sometimes expectations are exceeded. Williams believes the latter was the case for Lizzy Yarnold's success in Sochi, before she doubled up in PyeongChang.

"I would tell everyone, you have to keep the funding and the money. Money means medals, but you have to have the right athletes at the right time," says Williams.

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"I knew we had to bring home a medal in Vancouver and thank goodness we did. We don’t have our own track, we have to be away from home six months of the year, that’s hotels, fuel, travelling around the world. It’s a huge amount of money for a nation with no track.

"I think we are pretty awesome in skeleton, to be a nation with no ice track and we have got medals behind us. Unfortunately, not in these Olympics but trust me, in four years time, we will be standing here and we will be watching some medallists."

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