Britain Celebrates Historic Double Gold on 'Slippery Sunday'

Britain's Olympic Achievements

By Mitch Phillips

Historic Wins in Snow Sports

CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy, Feb 16 (Reuters) - It did not quite match the Super Saturday high point of the London 2012 Olympics but Britain's two thrilling comeback golds won on "Slippery Sunday" will go down as the greatest day in the country's long and generally underwhelming Winter Games history.

Impact of National Lottery Funding

Fourteen years ago Jess Ennis, Greg Rutherford and Mo Farah claimed athletics golds within 45 minutes at the London Olympic Stadium in front of 80,000 screaming fans with another 20 million in the UK roaring them on via TV.

Future of Winter Sports in the UK

Sunday's action was watched live by a few hundred - mostly friends and family of the athletes - and a relatively tiny TV audience, but those who tuned in were treated to incredible drama.

Britain's record target of four to eight medals had looked ambitious during an opening week that produced a series of frustrating fourth places, but Matt Weston got things moving with a fantastic victory in the skeleton men's singles on Friday when he set four successive track records.

If that was a procession, Sunday's action was anything but as Huw Nightingale and Charlotte Bankes won the Snowboard Cross Mixed Team gold as Bankes surged into the lead moments from the line.

It was Britain's first Olympic gold medal on snow in more than a century of trying and came after bronzes in 2014 and 2018.

Hours later things got even better when Weston produced an incredible run to haul Britain from fourth to first and take gold alongside Tabby Stoecker in the first running of skeleton's Mixed Team event.

It was the first time the country had won two golds in a day and made it the first Winter Olympics where they have collected three. Weston is also the only Briton to have taken two medals at the same Winter Games

It cemented Britain's status as the dominant force in skeleton, where they have now won five golds despite not having a track in the country.

NATIONAL LOTTERY FUNDING 

Weston was quick to thank players of the National Lottery as the funding from that source has had a huge impact on Britain's Summer and Winter Olympic programme.

In the four-year cycle ahead of the Milano-Cortina Games UK Sport spent 7.2 million pounds ($9.83 million) on the ski and snowboard programme and almost six million on skeleton.

In 2018 officials announced their ambition to become a top-five snow-sport country by 2030 and, though the overall focus on "money for medals" has been softened in recent years, not everybody is convinced that the millions pumped into sports that many observers feel are available to only a tiny minority is a good use of funds.

The newly-minted Olympic champions adorned Monday's newspaper front pages in Britain and Weston will no doubt be on the short list for the BBC's prestigious Sports Personality of the Year award come December.

But you would have had to dig deep to find any mention of his three successive World Cup overall titles, or the X-Games success of Brookes.

Sponsorship deals for the articulate Weston - every mother's dream son-in-law - and 19-year-old Brookes, whose "rad" approach has already made her a darling of her generation, will certainly roll in.

British officials are also justly proud of the diverse nature of their team in Cortina and there is a real belief that this week will help broaden the appeal of winter sports even further.

"We've been showing the talent in World Championships and World Cups, but everybody looks to the Olympics because everything is amplified," said GB Snowsport Chief Executive Vicky Gosling.

"People can truly see it's possible and we can deliver Olympic medals. Hopefully we are inspiring the next generation to get themselves to snow domes because the future is looking rosy."

($1 = 0.7328 pounds)

(Reporting by Mitch Phillips, editing by Ken Ferris)