Pain now, gain later

TEAM GB returned from Vancouver today but only Amy Williams brought back a medal having won gold in the skeleton.

Williams produced four brilliant runs down the Whistler track to become Britain's first individual gold medallist at the Winter Olympics for 30 years.

The successful slide meant that Team GB did better in Vancouver than in Turin four years ago when the only medal there was silver.

That was also in the skeleton, courtesy of Shelley Rudman who could only finish fifth this time.

Before the Games began, expectations were whipped up by public declarations from UK Sport that the aim was to return with three medals.

The press jumped on what looked like a bandwagon ready to roll, as did the BBC. But I cannot criticise them because I also got carried away with hopes of Whistler winners too.

It must be pointed out that the hype was not completely unfounded and UK Sport's target was hardly unrealistic.

While the majority of the 52 British competitors were what could be termed as also-rans, Team GB flew out a crack skeleton squad and - for the first time in Winter Olympics history - two world champions.

But, in the women's two-man bobsleigh, Gillian Cooke and Nicola Minichiello were one of three British teams to crash out on a notoriously difficult - some said, dangerous - track.

And, in the men's curling, David Murdoch and his team could not even make it to the last four.

Of the other prospects, Zoe Gillings in the snowboard cross threatened the podium but she bowed out in the semi finals.

Ice dancing pair Sinead and John Kerr, and the speed skaters Jon Eley and Elise Christie, were never really in with a shout.

All in all, it has been a hugely disappointing two weeks.

And, while British Olympics chiefs are technically right to hail an improvement since Turin, it was more telling how quickly they were on the defensive.

But this article is not simply intending to bash the British athletes’ efforts.

Though all but one of them failed to mount the podium, many of them were still competitive on a fraction of the funding dedicated to Summer Olympics.

The issue of funding is a bit of a chicken-and-egg situation.

Skeleton received the biggest wedge of money in the latest four-year cycle because, after Rudman’s win, it was widely recognised as the sport in which Britain had the best chance.

But, without the funding, a breakthrough similar to that made by the skeleton team is obviously much more difficult.

Sir Steve Redgrave has proposed building a long-track speed skating venue which would double as a national centre for all ice sports.

But the cost of such a project would dwarf the funding available.

Instead, surely more use should be made of the perfectly-adequate, already-constructed National Ice Centre in Nottingham.

That might generate better results as soon as 2014 at the next Winter Olympics at Sochi on the Black Sea in Russia.

After all, it is highly likely that Team GB will take a more experienced set of athletes to Russia if they all remain competing.

This time, Team GB was a young, inexperienced squad. 64% were competing in their first Olympics while 17% of them were younger than 21 years old.

What must also be remembered is the unpredictable nature of many winter sports which produce shock results where world champions have fallen short.

If nothing else, Team GB athletes can perhaps console themselves with the fact that they were not the greatest disappointment of the Games.

That fate lies firmly at the door of the Russian Olympic squad who won just three gold medals to finish 11th in the table.

It may be two more golds than Team GB but then Great Britain’s Winter Olympic prestige hardly compares to Russians’ history, especially when they competed as part of the Soviet Union.

In the nine Winter Olympics between 1956 and 1988, the Soviets only failed to finish top of the medal count twice – in 1968 and 1984.

The Russians’ dismal display in Vancouver was heightened by humiliation in the men's hockey – a 7-3 quarter final defeat to Canada.

The other notable failure was in the pairs figure skating where Russia failed to win gold for the first time since 1964.

Unsurprisingly, the performance by Team Russia has not gone down well back in Moscow and heads are expected to roll.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is a fanatical sportsman and has repeatedly vowed to rebuild Russia’s sporting prowess.

And with the next Winter Olympics being hosted by Russia, this was hardly the ideal way to prepare for home glory.

But Russia should take heart from Canada. Before these Winter Olympics, Canada had hosted the Summer Games in 1976 and the Winter Games in 1988.

Incredibly, the Canadians failed to win a single gold medal on either of those occasions.

As a result, an ‘Own the Podium’ programme was launched and funding was increased across all the winter sports to prevent a repeat of 1976 and 1988.

After a couple of nervy days without a gold medal, Alexandre Bilodeau won in the men’s moguls on day three and the floodgates opened.

Canada finished with 14 golds, the most ever by any nation at a Winter Olympics, beating the previous record of 13 set by the former Soviet Union in 1976 and Norway in 2002.

Canada was also the first host nation to top the medal table since Norway in 1952 and they finished the job in dream style.

A tight, tense men’s hockey final with United States had just been forced into overtime at 2-2 by an American goal which came 24 seconds from the end of the game.

Up stepped Sidney ‘Sid the Kid’ Crosby to hit a hard, low shot and score the sudden death winner after seven minutes of overtime.

For Canada, it was the perfect denouement to an unforgettable two weeks.