Winter Olympics: How Team GB can still win a lot of medals

It has been said that, for many years, Great Britain was outsporting itself in winter sports.

There’s no icy track, and only a few snowy mountains, yet world champions, X Games medalists and World Cup podium finishers often finish.

But right now, those punches are coming in the opposite direction — and they feel heavy.

Many expected Team GB to be on the medal table by now, with at least three, possibly four medals on the board. Instead, the sum remains at zero.

There were three agonizing fourth-place finishes for freestyle skater Kirsty Muir, figure skater Mia Brooks, Bruce Mowat and Jane Dodds, while a single error cost skaters Leila Fair and Louise Gibson dearly as they were vying for bronze in ice dancing.

But it showed how tight the margins were.

Take Muir, for example. The difference between bronze and fourth place in downhill was only 0.41 points.

If she hadn’t squatted on the landing on her final run, she would have been on the podium.

Meanwhile, Brooks knew she needed to put in a huge effort on her final run in the air to have a chance at a medal — and so she did.

She got the first backhand trick of the competition 1620 — featuring four and a half turns — but over-spinned at the last minute.

Had she landed cleanly, she would have won a medal.