Great Britain at the 2014 Winter Olympics

Great Britain at the
2014 Winter Olympics
Great Britain at the; 2014 Winter Olympics
	Flag of the United Kingdom
IOC code	GBR
NOC	British Olympic Association
in Sochi
Competitors	56 in 10 sports
Flag bearers	Jon Eley (opening); Lizzy Yarnold (closing)
Medals; Ranked 19th	Gold 1 Silver 1 Bronze 3 Total 5
Winter Olympics appearances (overview)
	1924; 1928; 1932; 1936; 1948; 1952; 1956; 1960; 1964; 1968; 1972; 1976; 1980; 1984; 1988; 1992; 1994; 1998; 2002; 2006; 2010; 2014; 2018; 2022;

Great Britain, represented by the British Olympic Association (BOA), competed at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, from 7 to 23 February 2014. The British team was made up of athletes from the whole United Kingdom including Northern Ireland, whose athletes may have elected to hold Irish citizenship, allowing them to represent either Great Britain or Ireland. Additionally some British overseas territories competed separately from Britain in Olympic competition. A total of 56 athletes competed in 11 sports making it the biggest contingent that Great Britain had sent to a Winter Olympic Games for twenty-six years.

On 9 February 2014, Jenny Jones won Great Britain's first medal on snow in their Winter Olympic history after finishing third in the women's slopestyle.^[4]

On 14 February 2014, Lizzy Yarnold won gold in the skeleton. She became the second Briton to win the gold in the event, taking the title from previous Great Britain champion Amy Williams. She was elected to be the flag bearer for the closing ceremony.

On 20 February 2014, the women's curling team won their bronze medal match against Switzerland 6–5. In doing so, they ensured that Great Britain met its UK Sport medal target of three medals from the Games.

On 19 February 2014, the men's curling team won their semifinal against Sweden 6–5 and on 21 February 2014, they won the silver medal after being defeated by Canada in the gold medal match 9–3, but the result still confirmed Great Britain's most successful Olympics for ninety years by equaling the medal count of the 1924 Winter Olympics.

In November 2017, the Russian Bobsleigh teams that came first and fourth in the Four-man event were disqualified. This meant that Great Britain (who originally finished 5th) would move up into the bronze medal position.^[5] The IOC requested that the IBSF modify the results, and the medals were redistributed accordingly.^[6]

Records

Olympic records

On 11 February Great Britain matched an Olympic scoreline record by beating USA 12–3 in women's curling.^[7] They also set a new Olympic record by scoring seven points in a single end.^[8] On 14 February they equalled the scoreline record again, this time beating Japan 12–3.^[9]

Medallists

Medals by date
Day	Date				Total
Day 1	8 February	0	0	0	0
Day 2	9 February	0	0	1	1
Day 3	10 February	0	0	0	0
Day 4	11 February	0	0	0	0
Day 5	12 February	0	0	0	0
Day 6	13 February	0	0	0	0
Day 7	14 February	1	0	0	1
Day 8	15 February	0	0	0	0
Day 9	16 February	0	0	0	0
Day 10	17 February	0	0	0	0
Day 11	18 February	0	0	0	0
Day 12	19 February	0	0	0	0
Day 13	20 February	0	0	1	1
Day 14	21 February	0	1	0	1
Day 15	22 February	0	0	0	0
Day 16	23 February	0	0	1	1
Total		1	1	3	5

Medal	Name	Sport	Event	Date
Gold	Lizzy Yarnold	Skeleton	Women's	14 February
Silver	David Murdoch Greg Drummond Scott Andrews Michael Goodfellow Tom Brewster	Curling	Men's curling	21 February
Bronze	Jenny Jones	Snowboarding	Women's slopestyle	9 February
Bronze	Eve Muirhead Anna Sloan Vicki Adams Claire Hamilton Lauren Gray	Curling	Women's curling	20 February
Bronze	John Jackson Bruce Tasker Stuart Benson Joel Fearon	Bobsleigh	Four Man	23 February

Medals by sport
Sport				Total
Skeleton	1	0	0	1
Curling	0	1	1	2
Snowboarding	0	0	1	1
Bobsleigh	0	0	1	1
Total	1	1	3	5

Medal and performance targets

On 16 January 2014, the funding body UK Sport announced their medal targets for Team GB at the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi with the target to win three medals with the best chance of success with the ladies skeleton events. Although the target was set at three medals the funding body predicted that Great Britain had the potential to win as many as seven medals, although this total was not widely expected to be reached. Other realistic chances of medal success were with the bobsleigh and curling events.

The games proved to be highly successful for Team GB, exceeding the initial target of three medals and achieving all of the targets for each of the winter sports that were set.

Key	N Target missed	Y Target met

Sport	Medal target set	Non medal target	Medals or result	Performance relative to target range
Bobsleigh	0–1	4th–6th (m), 4th–8th (w)	1	Y
Curling	1–2		2	Y
Figure skating	0	Top ten	Tenth	Y
Skeleton	1		1	Y
Speed skating	0–1	2x top eight	4 x top eight	Y
Ski and snowboard	1–2		1	Y
Total	3–7	n/a	5	Y
Total gold	n/a	n/a	1	n/a

UK Sport funding

In the Winter Olympic Cycle running from 2010 to 2014 the UK government body UK Sport allocated a then record budget of over £13 million to fund Team GB for the individual athletes as well as the bobsleigh and curling teams for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. The sports receiving the highest funding were bobsleigh, curling and skeleton, whilst speed skating, ski and snowboard, and figure skating also received funding, but all other winter sports where British athletes were competing did not receive any funding from the body.

Sport	Funding
Bobsleigh	£3,304,250
Curling	£2,055,100
Figure skating	£174,338
Speed skating	£2,593,400
Skeleton	£3,447,600
Ski and snowboard	£1,509,950
Total	£13,444,638

Alpine skiing

According to the quota allocation released on 27 January 2014, Great Britain qualified two athletes in alpine skiing.^[10]

Athlete	Event	Run 1		Run 2		Total
Athlete	Event	Time	Rank	Time	Rank	Time	Rank
David Ryding	Men's slalom	49.40	27	56.51	18	1:45.91	18
Chemmy Alcott	Women's downhill	—				1:43.43	19
	Women's super-G	—				1:29.14	23
	Women's combined	1:44.83	16	DNF

Biathlon

Based on their performance at the 2012 and 2013 Biathlon World Championships, Great Britain qualified 1 man and 1 woman.^[11]

Athlete	Event	Time	Misses	Rank
Lee-Steve Jackson	Men's sprint	27:07.5	1 (0+1)	67
Lee-Steve Jackson	Men's individual	54:11.3	1 (0+0+0+1)	42
Amanda Lightfoot	Women's sprint	24:48.9	3 (2+1)	75
Amanda Lightfoot	Women's individual	54:38.1	5 (1+2+1+1)	71

Bobsleigh

Athlete	Event	Run 1		Run 2		Run 3		Run 4		Total
Athlete	Event	Time	Rank	Time	Rank	Time	Rank	Time	Rank	Time	Rank
John Baines** Lamin Deen*	Two-man	57.54	=21	57.81	25	57.38	=18	Did not advance		2:52.73	23
Stuart Benson Joel Fearon John Jackson* Bruce Tasker	Four-man	55.26	10	55.27	2	55.31	5	55.26	2	3:41.10	^α
John Baines Lamin Deen* Andrew Matthews*** Ben Simons	Four-man	55.91	19	55.60	16	56.06	=19	55.95	20	3:43.52	19
Paula Walker* Rebekah Wilson	Two-woman	58.36	12	58.40	10	58.88	14	58.60	10	3:54.24	12

* – Denotes the driver of each sled
** – John Baines replaced original selection Craig Pickering who withdrew during the Games with a back injury.
*** – Andrew Matthews replaced original selection Craig Pickering who withdrew during the Games with a back injury.^[12]
^α In November 2017, the Russian teams that finished 1st and 4th were disqualified by the IOC following the publication of the McLaren Report. This subsequently led to the teams in 2nd, 3rd and 5th being moved up into the medal positions.^[13] The IOC requested that the IBSF modify the results, and the medals were redistributed accordingly.^[14]

Cross-country skiing

According to the quota allocation released on 30 December 2013, Great Britain had four athletes in qualification position.^[15]

Distance

Athlete	Event	Classical		Freestyle		Final
Athlete	Event	Time	Rank	Time	Rank	Time	Deficit	Rank
Andrew Musgrave	Men's 15 km classical	—				42:25.7	+3:56.0	44
Callum Smith		—				44:14.7	+5:45.0	67
Andrew Young		—				41:29.6	+2:59.9	37
Callum Smith	Men's 30 km skiathlon	39:57.4	59	37:02.5	64	1:17:37.1	+9:21.7	62
Andrew Musgrave	Men's 50 km freestyle	—				1:57:08.9	+10:13.7	53
Rosamund Musgrave	Women's 10 km classical	—				36:18.5	+8:00.7	66

Sprint

Athlete	Event	Qualification		Quarterfinal		Semifinal		Final
Athlete	Event	Time	Rank	Time	Rank	Time	Rank	Time	Rank
Andrew Musgrave	Men's sprint	3:37.75	27 Q	3:48.69	6	Did not advance
Callum Smith		3:50.13	62	Did not advance
Andrew Young		3:40.68	42	Did not advance
Andrew Musgrave Andrew Young	Men's team sprint	—				DNF		Did not advance
Rosamund Musgrave	Women's sprint	2:43.31	42	Did not advance

Curling

Based on results from 2012 and the 2013, Great Britain has qualified their men's and women's team (consisting of five athletes) as one of the seven highest ranked nations.

Men's tournament

Team

Position	Curler
Skip	David Murdoch
Third	Greg Drummond
Second	Scott Andrews
Lead	Michael Goodfellow
Alternate	Tom Brewster

Standings

Final round robin standings
Team v t e	Skip	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	EW	EL	BE	SE	S%	Qualification
Sweden	Niklas Edin	9	8	1	60	44	38	30	18	8	86%	Playoffs
Canada	Brad Jacobs	9	7	2	69	53	39	36	14	7	84%
China	Liu Rui	9	7	2	67	50	41	37	11	5	85%
Norway	Thomas Ulsrud	9	5	4	52	53	36	33	18	5	86%	Tiebreaker
Great Britain	David Murdoch	9	5	4	51	49	37	35	15	8	83%	Tiebreaker
Denmark	Rasmus Stjerne	9	4	5	54	61	32	37	17	4	81%
Russia	Andrey Drozdov	9	3	6	58	70	36	38	13	7	77%
Switzerland	Sven Michel	9	3	6	47	46	31	34	22	7	83%
United States	John Shuster	9	2	7	47	58	30	39	14	7	80%
Germany	John Jahr	9	1	8	53	74	38	39	10	9	76%

Source: ^{[citation needed]}

Round-robin

Great Britain had a bye in draws 4, 7 and 11.

Draw 1

Sheet A	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Final
Russia (Drozdov)	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	0	2	X	4
Great Britain (Murdoch)	0	2	0	0	0	4	0	1	0	X	7

Draw 2

Sheet D	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Final
Sweden (Edin)	0	2	0	0	2	0	0	4	0	X	8
Great Britain (Murdoch)	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	0	1	X	4

Draw 3

Sheet C	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Final
Great Britain (Murdoch)	1	0	0	0	2	0	2	0	1	1	7
Germany (Jahr)	0	1	1	1	0	2	0	1	0	0	6

Draw 5

Sheet B	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Final
Switzerland (Michel)	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	2
Great Britain (Murdoch)	0	0	1	1	0	1	0	0	0	1	4

Draw 6

Sheet D	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Final
Great Britain (Murdoch)	1	0	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	X	5
United States (Shuster)	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	0	1	X	3

Draw 8

Sheet A	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Final
Great Britain (Murdoch)	0	0	0	1	0	3	0	2	1	1	8
Denmark (Stjerne)	0	2	1	0	2	0	1	0	0	0	6

Draw 9

Sheet C	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Final
Canada (Jacobs)	1	0	0	3	0	0	1	0	1	1	7
Great Britain (Murdoch)	0	1	1	0	2	0	0	1	0	0	5

Draw 10

Sheet B	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Final
Great Britain (Murdoch)	0	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	2	0	6
Norway (Ulsrud)	0	0	2	0	2	1	0	1	0	1	7

Draw 12

Sheet A	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Final
China (Liu)	1	0	0	2	0	0	1	1	0	1	6
Great Britain (Murdoch)	0	1	1	0	0	1	0	0	2	0	5

Tiebreaker

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Final
Norway (Ulsrud)	1	0	1	0	2	0	0	0	1	0	5
Great Britain (Murdoch)	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	2	0	2	6

Playoffs

Semifinal

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Final
Sweden (Edin)	0	0	2	0	0	0	1	0	2	0	5
Great Britain (Murdoch)	0	1	0	0	1	1	0	1	0	2	6

Final

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Final
Great Britain (Murdoch)	0	1	0	0	1	0	1	0	X	X	3
Canada (Jacobs)	2	0	3	1	0	2	0	1	X	X	9