Top 10 Team GB Winter Olympic Gold Medal Winners
Great Britain are enjoying one of their most successful Winter Olympics ever this year in Sochi and have picked up their 10th gold medal in the history of the Games. In celebration, FREEbets.org.uk have had a look at Team GB’s golden history in the tournament.
10. 1924 Men’s Curling
Things started off so well for Team GB at the Winter Olympics when in the very first edition of the Games they claimed the gold medal in the men’s curling event. The side of William Jackson, Thomas Murray, Robin Welsh and Laurence Jackson defeated Sweden and France en route to victory.
9. 1936 Men’s Ice Hockey
It is hard to imagine it now but once Great Britain was a real force in ice hockey and they proved their dominance in ’36 when they saw-off the likes of Canada, Czechoslavakia, Hungary, Sweden and Japan to claim the top prize.
8. 1952: Jeannette Altwegg – Figure Skating
Jeannette had the chance to become a professional tennis player but chose the ice instead and her decision was vindicated when she triumphed in Oslo in ’52. She beat off stern competition from a raft of American competitors and picked up a CBE as a result.
7. 1964: Two-man Bobsleigh
Tony Nash and Robin Dixon were the stars of the show for Team GB in 1964 when they conquered the bobsleigh run in Innsbruck. They only managed it thanks to the Italians loaning them an axel though and they will be forever in their debt.
6. 1976: John Curry – Figure Skating
Back in Innsbruck where it turns out that Britain have a 100% record in winning golds thanks to John Curry topping the podium in ’76. The Birmingham native was figure skating King in Austria and won Sports Personality of the Year the same year.
5. 1980: Robin Cousins – Figure Skating
Cousins followed up Curry’s triumph four years later with gold in the same event in Lake Placid. Now well-known to a new generation thanks to judging the celebrities on Dancing on Ice but his finest hour came 34 years ago in New York.
4. 1984: Torvill and Dean – Figure Skating
Quite possibly the most famous British Winter Olympians of all time when Jane Torvill and Christopher Dean danced to the Bolero and wowed the crowds in Sarajevo. The pair have been dining out on that sparkling performance ever since.
3. 2002: Women’s Curling
Great Britain may have conquered this sport all the way back in 1924 but it sprang back into the consciousness of the public when Rhona Martin and her team claimed gold in Salt Lake City. Their thrilling win over Switzerland in the final brought the nation round to a sport that many had never heard of.
2. 2010: Amy Williams – Skeleton
Not a lot was expected of the Great Britain team in Vancouver in 2010 but Amy Williams became a superstar overnight when she beat off all the competition in the skeleton. Another sport that few were aware of before her triumph, but the public are well aware of it now.
1. 2014: Lizzy Yarnold – Skeleton
If Williams hadn’t done enough to popularise the sport of skeleton then Lizzy Yarnold confirmed its place in the hearts of British sports fans. The 25-year-old from Kent went in as favourite and lived up to her billing in Sochi.