How many will Team GB bring home?

With less than six months until the fun and (Olympic) games kicks off at Vancouver 2010, let’s take a look at who could be bringing a medal back home from across the Atlantic. As a skiing and snowboarding blog, we should focus on our ski and snowboarding prospects, but that would leave us with a very short blog and so we will give a mention to our other hopefuls.

On past performances, it looks unlikely that Team GB’s skiing team will return with a medal. Perhaps the one hope that we have lies in the skis of Chemmy Alcott. If she remains injury-free, Chemmy has a chance of causing an upset in Vancouver. With more than 30 British National Titles, she is our most-decorated skier and represents our most realistic chance of Olympic glory.

Currently ranked 5th in the world, Zoe Gillings is young, ambitious and could even bring home a gold medal from the Winter Olympics. Britain’s current Snowsport Athlete of the Year, Olympic glory could be a real possibility for Zoe. She is certainly one to watch as Team GB attempts to win its first Olympic snowboarding medal.

Skeleton silver-medallist in Turin 2006, Shelley Rudman will be hoping to go one better when she hits the track in Vancouver. Facing competition from the usual suspects, including Canada, Switzerland and the USA, Rudman will need to be on top-form to bag a gold but she’s definitely one of our biggest chances. Fingers crossed she can recreate the form of nearly four years ago.

And so we come to our current world champions and most likely winners in Vancouver 2010.

In February 2009, Nicola Minichiello and Gillian Cooke became the first British women to win the Bobsleigh World Championships when they triumphed at Lake Placid. Minichiello and Cooke will head to Vancouver 2010 as genuine gold medal hopes, especially in the eyes of the medal-starved Team GB Winter Olympic fans. Minichiello is the key to success, so let’s hope she stays fit in the run-up to Vancouver and snatches the gold from under the noses of the US and German teams.

Great Britain’s last Winter Olympic gold came in 2002 when Rhona Martin led her team to glory in the Women’s Curling. In Vancouver, curling hopes will be placed in two-times World Champion David Murdoch and his team. Murdoch will be looking to emulate his fellow Scot, and lead Team GB to only their second gold medal since 1984.

Between now and the beginning of Vancouver 2010, plenty can change. In these sports where milliseconds and millimetres count, every bit of preparation and training could make such a difference when the Winter Olympics finally come around. Team GB will be hoping for an injury-free end to 2009 and a prosperous start to 2010.

Union Jack image supplied by geishaboy500
Medal Images supplied by cliff1066