Team GB chef de mission Eve Muirhead has hailed the greatest day in British Winter Olympic history as records tumbled like an avalanche in Livigno and Cortina.
Charlotte Bankes and Huw Nightingale teamed up to win mixed team snowboard cross gold, then Matt Weston and Tabby Stoecker followed suit in the skeleton event.
Great Britain had never previously won more than one gold medal at the same Winter Olympics – with Weston’s win in the men’s skeleton on Friday, they have now won three within 48 hours.
With his second gold, Weston becomes the first athlete in British Winter Olympic history to win multiple medals at the same Games.
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.
“Today, getting two gold medals 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.”
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.
After Marcus Wyatt and Freya Tarbit narrowly missed out on a skeleton team medal, it also means Great Britain have set a new record for the most fourth places at a single Games.
More records could be yet to come as Britain look to equal or exceed the record five medals achieved at both the Sochi and Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in 2014 and 2018 respectively.
Kirsty Muir and Zoe Atkin have strong medal chances in ski slopestyle and ski halfpipe respectively, while the men’s curling team and the four-man bobsleigh squad are also in with a shout.
