Britain's Winter Olympics medal target hits double figures as Pyeongchang budget doubles to £32m

Great Britain has been tasked with claiming its biggest medal haul in Winter Olympics history after UK Sport announced its targets for Pyeongchang 2018.
Great Britain's Lizzy Yarnold. Picture: Andrew Milligan/PA.Great Britain's Lizzy Yarnold. Picture: Andrew Milligan/PA.
Great Britain's Lizzy Yarnold. Picture: Andrew Milligan/PA.

UK Sport, the funding agency which distributes money to elite Olympic and Paralympic sport, has challenged Britain to win four to 10 medals at the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea.

Britain won four medals at the 2014 Winter Olympics, equalling the 1924 haul from Chamonix, but the Sochi haul could rise following the Russian doping scandal. The XXIII Games begin on February 9 and conclude on February 25.

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UK Sport’s investment for the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics and Paralympics cycle was £14m. That has more than doubled to £32m for Pyeongchang.

UK Sport is targeting four to 10 medals at the Olympics and a range of six to 12 medals for the Winter Paralympics.

Team GB won one medal at each of the 2006 and 2010 Winter Olympics, both in skeleton. Shelley Rudman took silver in Turin in 2006 and Amy Williams gold four years later in Vancouver.

Lizzy Yarnold succeeded Williams as Olympic skeleton champion at the Sochi 2014 Games in a four-medal haul, which is poised to rise to five. The disqualification of two Russian sleds following the uncovering of systematic doping means Britain’s four-man bobsleigh team, led by pilot John Jackson, is in line to be promoted from fifth to third.