In the men’s curling semi-finals of the Beijing Winter Olympics on the evening of February 17, as the British team defeated the defending champion US team 8-4, the British delegation can ensure that one day before the closing of the Winter Olympics (19th) to take away one medals, thus avoiding the embarrassing situation of returning from the Winter Olympics empty-handed once more following 30 years.
As of the 18th, the British team had zero medals in the Beijing Winter Olympics, which was far from the pre-match goal of 3 to 7 medals.
In contrast, other European powers such as Germany ranked second with 10 gold medals, and France ranked 10th with 5 gold medals. The United Kingdom’s performance is terrible.
Top 10 in the Beijing Winter Olympics medal list.
The Financial Times (Financial Times) pointed out that although the UK has invested more than 20 million pounds (regarding 172 million yuan) in nine categories of winter sports in the 2019-2023 cycle, the UK has The Olympic performance was a far cry from the five medals achieved at the Sochi and Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.
Screenshot of the Financial Times report
In this Winter Olympics, the United Kingdom did not perform well in a number of advantageous events that it participated in. Take the bobsleigh, for example, in which the British team has won a medal at every Winter Olympics since 2002. In the fourth round of the women’s bobsleigh competition at the Beijing Winter Olympics on February 12, PyeongChang Winter Olympics bronze medalist Laura Deas only ranked 19th, while the two British men’s bobsleigh Players Matt Weston and Marcus Wyatt were ranked 15th and 16th respectively in the previous day (11th).
Britain’s mixed curling world champion duo Jennifer Dodds and Bruce Moat lost to Norway in the semifinals and Sweden in the bronze medal match, missing out on a medal.
Charlotte Bankes, the world’s number one snowboarder, ended up in the quarter-finals of the women’s slalom chase due to an error.
The Financial Times described the British team’s trip to the Winter Olympics as “struggle” and “disappointing”, and said it was in stark contrast to the outstanding performance of the Chinese team in this Winter Olympics. Currently, the Chinese team is ranked 4th in the medal standings and has won 8 gold medals. The Financial Times reported that outstanding Chinese athletes, including Gu Ailing, who won two golds and one silver, and star snowboarder Su Yiming, successfully ignited the popularity of the Winter Olympics in China.
The British “Guardian” cited the new crown pneumonia as one of the factors affecting the performance of British athletes. There are more than 50 athletes on the British Winter Olympics team, regarding 60% of whom spend most of the year abroad. Due to travel restrictions caused by the new crown epidemic, British athletes have reduced the time they spend training on ice and snow, which in turn affects their performance.
The question is that other major European countries such as France and Germany are also plagued by the epidemic. Why do their Eastern European players still perform well?
In addition, the British media also believe that “technical factors” are also the reason for the British defeat. Take the steel frame snowmobile for example. Over the years, the UK’s performance on this project has benefited from advanced helmets, aerodynamic suits and so on. According to the BBC, although there is no steel frame snowmobile track in the UK, the UK has been doing well in this project with this “technical advantage”.
But in Beijing, the British-designed new snowmobile looks less than satisfactory. According to reports, the snowmobile used by British athletes at the Beijing Winter Olympics is said to be in progress (in progress), and the Guardian said that the snowmobile needs to be adjusted slightly and may win more medals for Britain in the future.
The British media will always find many technical reasons for their Eastern European team’s failure. However, the decline of a country can also be seen in sports performance. It can be seen from the performance of the Japanese team in the Olympic Games in the past 20 years.
Postscript: In the men’s curling semi-final on February 19, the British team lost to the Swedish team and won the silver medal. Britain should have a silver medal in this Winter Olympics, ranking 24th in the medal standings.
