Those banging skeleton helmets and other things we love from the Winter Olympics

Spectacular headgear is just one of the things people are talking about off the field in Pyeongchang

The skeleton is one of the most exciting events at the Olympics, and one that’s yielded the goods for Great Britain, after Lizzie Yarnold won gold last Saturday in the women’s skeleton, with bronze for Laura Deas. This was after Dom Parsons had taken bronze in the men’s event.

All that serious business aside though, it’s a pretty brilliant spectacle, if only for some of the athletes’ helmets.

Loads of them have had their helmets custom-designed to represent different things – from celebrations of their country, to their favourite movies.

Akwasi Frimpong, the only athlete to represent Ghana at the games, has an awesome picture of a rabbit escaping a lion on his.

And this Canadian grizzly bear design is pretty decent too.

We're a week and a half deep into the Winter Olympics now and there's been a lot to enjoy - both on and off the slopes, rinks and ice tracks.

Here are just a few other notably bizarre or remarkable bits and pieces that we've taken delight in so far at Pyeongchang.

A perhaps unlikely star of recent Winter Olympics has definitely been the Norwegian curling team. Or, more accurately, the Norwegian curling team's collection of trousers. There is even a Facebook page dedicated to them, with around 48,000 followers. Cult status assured.

They turned out this year on Valentine’s Day with these charmingly romantic kecks.

And it was at the Vancouver Winter Olympics in 2010 that they burst into our lives with these Alice in Wonderland like argyle trousers, all done up in the colours of the Norwegian flag.

At Sochi 2014 they didn't disappoint, bringing us styles like these headache-inducing, psychedelic trousers...

The sponsorship money from the company who make their trousers has actually helped to pay, external their way through to the Olympics.

On the sidelines of the Winter Olympics, one pretty interesting sub-story has been the Ski Robot Challenge, which is exactly what it sounds like. These adorable little, metallic robot dweebs have been fitted with camera sensors and ski poles and then sent hurtling down 70m slopes – some with more success than others.

He chooses curling? What does this mean? Is he hoping to compete at Beijing 2022?

Either way, the sport of curling has found an unlikely advocate in señor T, star of confectionary adverts, '80s action series The A Team, and, perhaps most famously, erstwhile BBC Three series, World’s Craziest Fools.

US born Elizabeth Swaney invoked the spirit of the plucky hopeful when she competed for Team Hungary in the freeski halfpipe. 

You could be forgiven for thinking, 'But she isn't very good at the freeski halfpipe'. In fact, you'd be absolutely right. The 33-year old, from California, has perseverance, though. In order to qualify for Pyeongchang, she first tried to compete for Venezuela, before switching allegiances to Hungary, for which she was eligible through her grandparents. 

She also needed to finish within the top 30 at a few World Cup skiing events. She finally managed this last December, competing in an event in China (she finished 13th out of 15), whilst the world's top skiers were at a more prestigious event in Colorado.

We can't tell whether this is an affront to the sport or actually pretty commendable strategy and determination.

The Norwegian Winter Olympics team found themselves in possession of 13,500 surplus eggs this month, after a truck delivered 15,000, rather than the 1,500 needed. 

Chef Stale Johansen said, external there was 'no end to the delivery'. It's not quite clear how the mistake came about, but they've managed to return the surplus. Shame, we were quite looking forward to seeing what having to eat omelette three times a day does to an alpine skier's speed.

For the first time in Olympic history, figure skaters have been allowed to compete to music with lyrics. France’s Vanessa James and Morgan Cipres made absolute full use of that new rule in the pairs final. 

We love the Winter Olympics. More like this for the rest of the Games.

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