Why 2026 could be GB's most successful Winter Olympics

Could it be that Great Britain - a land of no ice track, Eddie the Eagle and an average of 13 days of snow per year - is becoming a winter sports nation?

Whisper it quietly, but the next three weeks could prove it so.

The Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics officially get under way on Friday, and the Team GB squad bound for Italy have world champions, X Games gold medallists and World Cup podium athletes in their midst.

Britain's best medal haul from a Winter Games is five - at Sochi 2014 and Pyeongchang 2018 - but UK Sport says up to eight medals could be won.

Among their number in Italy, Team GB have two of the best men's skeleton athletes in world champion Matt Weston and Marcus Wyatt.

Take your pick of Mia Brookes, Kirsty Muir, Zoe Atkin or Charlotte Bankes as to who could win the nation's first Olympic gold or silver medal on snow.

On the ice, Lewis Gibson and Lilah Fear - widely seen as the next Torvill and Dean - are very much in with a shout of winning a first British Olympic figure skating medal since 1994, while Britain's curlers look set to add to their two medals from 2022.

But such optimism comes with a word of caution, given the Beijing Olympics four years ago.

With a target of three to seven medals, Team GB were left to "lick their wounds" after ending the Games with only two curling medals - won on the last two days of competition - to show for a fortnight of upsets and near-misses.

GB Snowsport chief executive Vicky Gosling later told BBC Sport that athletes had flown to China with a "slight arrogance".

Speaking before the 2026 Games, she said: "We've always got it in the back of our minds.

"We can't bank on anything because literally anything can happen. There's that sense of jeopardy."

Team GB chef de mission Eve Muirhead added: "What a great opportunity we have, but we've also got to take into account the high risk of winter sport - and that's why everyone loves it."

But this time it does feel different.

Take the 2024-25 season, for example. Britain's winter athletes won nine World Championship medals across the sports.

British skiers and snowboarders achieved 28 major podiums in Olympic disciplines, won three Crystal Globes (overall World Cup titles) and one World Championship title for Atkin.

In skeleton, British athletes won three World Championship medals and 19 on the World Cup circuit - seven of which were gold - while Weston and Wyatt secured a one-two in the overall rankings.

Despite injuries threatening to derail some athletes' march towards the Olympics, such widespread success has continued into the current season.

At the X Games, in which the world's best freestyle skiers and snowboarders are invited to compete, Brookes, Atkin and Muir came away with five medals between them - three of them gold - in a statement performance only two weeks before Milan-Cortina.

And in men's skeleton, Weston won five of the seven World Cup races this season and Wyatt won the other two.

"I'm really excited," said Gosling. "When you look at the strength in depth of the team that we have, we couldn't be in a better place.

"We've punched way above our weight."

Over the four-year cycle leading into the Milan-Cortina Games, UK Sport has ploughed £25.5m into winter sports on the Olympic programme, up from £22.2m for the Beijing cycle.

The 2022 figure was almost double the investment for Sochi 2014.

However, Olympic winter sports federations in the US received about £24m for the year of 2022 alone from the US Olympic Committee.

"We've gone from a nation happy to be at the start line to a nation that's truly capable of winning," said Gosling.

"Not only do we expect to be on the start line, but we expect a medal.

"The Eddie the Eagle days are over."

Sport: Skeleton

Key achievements: Weston is a two-time world champion and won three successive overall World Cup titles between 2023 and 2026. He won five of seven World Cup golds this season, picking up silver behind team-mate Wyatt in the other two.

Competition dates: 12 February (men's heats one and two), 13 February (men's heats three and four), 15 February (mixed team).

Sport: Freestyle skiing (halfpipe)

Key achievements: The current halfpipe world champion, Atkin has achieved three podium finishes from three starts on the World Cup circuit this season, including a gold. She also won gold at the recent X Games.

Competition dates: 19 February (qualifying), 21 February (finals).

Sport: Snowboarding (snowboard cross)

Key achievements: Bankes was crowned world champion in 2021 and won the mixed team title two years later with British team-mate Huw Nightingale. Bankes has twice won the Crystal Globe - overall World Cup title - and finished second in the standings in 2024 and 2025, the latter season curtailed by a broken collarbone. She won her first race since returning from injury in January.

Competition dates: 13 February (women's), 15 February (mixed team).

Sport: Snowboarding (big air, slopestyle)

Key achievements: In 2023 Brookes became the youngest world champion in snowboarding history at the age of 16 with slopestyle gold. She has won back-to-back big air Crystal Globes and won World Cup gold in December, as well as slopestyle gold and big air bronze at the recent X Games.

Competition dates: 8 February (big air qualifying), 9 February (big air finals), 16 February (slopestyle qualifying), 17 February (slopestyle finals).

Sport: Freestyle skiing (big air, slopestyle)

Key achievements: Muir is a two-time World Cup gold medallist, having won slopestyle gold in Tignes last season and the big air title in Secret Garden, China, in November. At the recent X Games in Aspen she won slopestyle gold and big air silver.

Competition dates: 7 February (slopestyle qualifying), 9 February (slopestyle finals), 14 February (big air qualifying), 16 February (big air finals).

Sport: Figure skating (ice dance)

Key achievements: In March Fear and Gibson became the first British figure skaters to win a World Championship medal since Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean in 1984 with their bronze in Boston. Fear and Gibson have also won four European medals and are two-time Grand Prix Final bronze medallists.

Competition dates: 9 February (rhythm dance), 11 February (free dance).

Sport: Curling

Key achievements: Bruce Mouat's men's rink are the curling world champions, having also won the title in 2023. They won three successive European crowns between 2021 and 2023, and silver at the 2022 Winter Olympics.

Competition dates: 11-22 February.

Marcus Wyatt is a hot favourite to join Weston on the men's skeleton podium, having won World Championship silver behind his team-mate last year, while Weston and Tabby Stoecker will team up in the mixed team event.

Also on the Cortina track, keep an eye out for Brad Hall's two-man and four-man sleds in the men's bobsleigh. They have been no stranger to World Cup podiums in recent years.

There could be a hat-trick of medals for Team GB's curling rinks, with Mouat and Jennifer Dodds teaming up in the mixed team event and Team Morrison looking to defend the gold medal won by Muirhead's women's team in Beijing.