‘Super Sunday’ raises hopes that Team GB can eclipse previous medal totals

Great Britain’s glorious Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina is set to hit new heights after the nation’s ‘Super Sunday’ on the slopes and chutes sent records tumbling.

Charlotte Bankes and Huw Nightingale clinched the first ever snow gold with victory in the mixed team snowboard-cross, and five hours later Matt Weston and Tabby Stoecker won the mixed team skeleton.

It leaves Team GB on three golds after Weston’s win in the men’s skeleton on Friday – and raises hopes the final medal total will eclipse the five earned in Sochi and Pyeongchang respectively.

Kirsty Muir stands a big chance in the women’s ski slopestyle final on Monday, Zoe Atkin is a contender in the ski half-pipe next week, while the men’s curlers and four-man bobsleigh crew also harbour realistic medal hopes.

A frustrating first week was obliterated on an extraordinary day in Livigno and Cortina. Having never previously won more than one gold medal at the same Winter Games, they proceeded to clinch three within 48 hours.

Team GB Chef de Mission Eve Muirhead said: “It’s incredible. (It was a) slightly slow start, we knew that, but we were patient, we kept the vibe up, we kept very positive because we knew we were going to have opportunities to come.

“Getting two gold medals was just incredible, the most we’ve ever had in British Winter Olympic history, and for Matt being the most decorated British Winter Olympian of all time is something really special.”

With his second gold, Weston becomes the first athlete in British Winter Olympic history to win multiple medals at the same Games.

Meanwhile, Bankes and Nightingale’s thrilling ride to snowboard-cross gold made them the first ever British Olympic champions on snow.

It means the narrative of frustration that had dogged Team GB through the first week of the Games, including three fourth-placed finishes, has been obliterated.