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Big Air Shougang, a competition venue for freestyle skiing and snowboarding during the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics is seen in Beijing, China, on Jan. 13, 2022. (Photo by= REUTERS/Pawel Kopczynski) |
[Asia News = Reporter Reakkana] LONDON: British athletes could take a best-ever tally of seven medals at next month's Beijing Winter Olympics with the potential for more at the Paralympics, UK Sport said on Thursday (Jan 13), Reuters reported.
Team GB took five medals - a skeleton gold and four bronzes from the skeleton, freestyle skiing, and snowboarding - at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games, a haul that ranked the country 19th in the overall table. Britain also won five medals in 2014, one of them retrospectively after two Russian four-man bobsleigh crews were disqualified in 2019 for doping offenses. UK Sport said British athletes had the potential to win between three to seven medals at the Olympics and five to nine medals at the Paralympics.
"This is a Games of great opportunity," said UK Sport chief executive Sally Munday.
British athletes have been on World Cup podiums this season in snowboarding, with Charlotte Bankes and Katie Ormerod, as well as bobsleigh and skeleton. Bruce Mouat and Jen Dodds are world champions in mixed doubles curling. The Winter Olympics run from Feb 4-20, with the Paralympics held in March.