The Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games have been the most successful Games to date for British skiers and snowboarders with an Olympic Bronze medal for Jenny Jones in Ladies Snowboard Slopestyle, five top ten finishes (six including Jenny Jones), and a further five more athletes finishing in the top 20 and three in the top 30.
The introduction of Ski and Snowboard Slopestyle and Ski Halfpipe have played a major part in this success, as has Snowboard Cross athlete Zoe Gillings for finished in 9th and Alpine skiers Chemmy Alcott and Dave Ryding who both finished with impressive top 20 positions.
Further historical results came via the cross country skiers with Andrew Musgrave becoming the first ever British Cross Country skier to finish in the top 30 at an Olympic Games and Posy Musgrave becoming the highest placed female British Cross Country skier ever at a Winter Olympics.
said of the success: “The results of our skiers and snowboarders in Sochi are a massive achievement and a huge milestone for competitive snowsports in Great Britain. Our 14 top 30 finishes, six of which were top 10 finishes, shows the strength we now have across all disciplines, and to come away with a bronze medal from one of our most experienced snowboarders, Jenny Jones, was the icing on the cake,” said British Ski and Snowboard Chief Executive David Edwards.
“The Games has proved the success of our Park and Pipe programme with five of our six top 10s coming in the Ski and Snowboard Slopestyle events. We are also delighted with the 9th position for third time Olympian Zoe Gillings, two top 20s from our Alpine skiers and record breaking results from our Cross Country team.
“We will now be reviewing the successes of the last four years and consulting with all the snowsport disciplines to build plans and programmes with the goal of achieving regular and consistent World Cup results and producing athletes who will be challenging for medals in even more events in PyeonChang in 2018”
British Skiers and Snowboarders – Sochi 2014 results:
Jenny Jones – Snowboard Slopestyle – Bronze medal (3rd/23 competitors)
James Woods – Ski Slopestyle – 5th/ 32 competitors
Jamie Nicholls – Snowboard Slopestyle – 6th/ 29 competitors
Katie Summerhayes – Ski Slopestyle – 7th/ 22 competitors
Zoe Gillings – Snowboard Cross – 9th / 24 competitors
Billy Morgan – Snowboard Slopestyle – 10th/ 29 competitors
Dave Ryding – Men’s Slalom – 17th / 43 competitors
Murray Buchan – Ski Halfpipe – 17th / 28 competitors
Aimee Fuller – Snowboard Slopestyle – 17th / 20 competitors
Emma Lonsdale – Ski Halfpipe – 18th/ 23 competitors
Chemmy Alcott – Women’s Downhill – 19th/ 42 competitors and Women’s Super G – 23rd / 50 competitors
James Machon – Ski Halfpipe – 23rd/ 28 competitors
Andrew Musgrave – Cross Country: Individual Sprint Free – 29th/ 85 competitors, 15km Classic – 44th/ 92 competitors and 50km Mass Start – 53rd/ 60 competitors
Ben Kilner – Snowboard Halfpipe – 34th / 39 competitors
Dom Harington – Snowboard Halfpipe – 38th/ 39 competitors
Andrew Young – Cross Country: 15km Classic – 37th / 92 competitors, Individual Sprint Free – 42nd/ 85 competitors
Posy Musgrave – Cross Country: Individual Sprint Free – 42nd / 67 competitors, 10km Classic – 66th/ 76 competitors
Callum Smith – Cross Country: Individual Sprint Free – 62nd/ 85 competitors and 15km Classic – 67th/ 92 competitors