Dame Katherine Grainger ‘not panicking yet’ about GB’s lack of medals in Beijing
Snowboarder Charlotte Bankes and curlers Jen Dodds and Bruce Mouat were hopes for an early British medal at the Winter Olympics.
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Your support makes all the difference.UK Sport chair Dame Katherine Grainger said she was “not panicking yet” after Team GB suffered more Winter Olympics disappointment in Beijing.
Big medal hope and reigning world champion Charlotte Bankes was eliminated from the women’s snowboard-cross at the quarter-final stage on Wednesday.
Great Britain’s curling mixed doubles pair Jen Dodds and Bruce Mouat, also current world champions, missed out on a medal on Tuesday and, after day five, Team GB remained without a podium finish.
Grainger told the PA news agency: “We still have high hopes for the men’s and women’s curling teams, we’ve got the skeleton still to come, plenty more on the snow, so I think we’ll still see Team GB deliver.
“We’re only day five. I was out in Pyeongchang (in 2018) and it was day seven before we saw a medal, so we’re not panicking yet.
“There’s plenty more to come. I do think we’ll see some great results coming. We’ve got a range of hopes across snow and ice over the two weeks.
“Yes, of course Charlotte and the mixed curling were two of our favourites, both reigning world champions, so that leads to big expectation.
“But Olympic sport is unpredictable and comes down to these incredibly tight moments that will decide your medal position or otherwise.”
UK Sport set a target of between three and seven medals at the Games, having formed a Beijing Support Fund, which gave significant sums to non-Lottery-funded sports.
Team GB delivered five medals at both Sochi 2014 and Pyeongchang 2018, and Grainger switched her focus to later events in Beijing.
She said: “Of course it’s disappointing for those athletes and they will have wanted better, but the curlers have got more opportunities ahead.
“There’s two very important bits to mention about the National Lottery and one is that of course what it does is enable all of our athletes to train and compete almost full-time and the second thing it gives them access to amazing facilities.
We still have high hopes for the men's and women's curling teams, we've got the skeleton still to come, plenty more on the snow, so I think we'll still see Team GB deliver
“I’m at Hemel Hempstead now and there was huge investment here from the National Lottery, which made it possible for athletes to train and compete, and also the local community to enjoy as well.
“It’s always easy and quite simplistic to define success through a number of medals, but watching the young kids gather here to watch our athletes compete in a Team GB shirt is really inspiring and really exciting for them.
“Charlotte didn’t deliver a medal, but it was just as exciting for those kids to see her perform at that level. It’s incredibly inspirational and aspirational.”
Two-time Olympian and now television presenter Aimee Fuller said Bankes’ quarter-final exit was “an absolutely devastating blow for British snowboarding”.
Fuller, one of the faces of BBC’s Winter Olympics coverage, told PA: “She was our hope going into these Games and I’m genuinely gutted for her because she was the woman to beat going into this event.
“All eyes were on her, but in border-cross, it’s a sport with such fine margins, you just make one slight error – it’s like Formula One – if you take the wrong line you are out of the competition.
“I would put it down to rotten luck. She attacked this event with such composure, elegance, but that’s border-cross.
“She’s one of the best in the world. It just wasn’t to be for her today.”