Katie Ormerod and Dave Ryding headline 50-strong Team GB contingent for Winter Olympics

The team, featuring three returning medallists in Izzy Atkin, Laura Deas and Eve Muirhead, is Britain’s smallest for a Winter Games since 2010 in Vancouver, when Amy Williams won the only medal in women’s skeleton.

The 23-year-old Smeding, whose boyfriend Cornelius Kersten is also in the team, is the first British long-track speed-skater to qualify for a Games since Kim Ferran and Mandy Horsepool in 1980. Smeding said: “Being part of Team GB in Beijing is an absolute dream come true. This season has gone really well so far and I’m hoping to put my best races down at the Games.”

Hopes are high that the team will at least emulate the five-medal haul from each of the previous two Winter Olympics, especially in light of Dave Ryding’s historic win in this weekend’s World Cup slalom in Kitzbuhel. Mixed curling duo Bruce Mouat and Jennifer Dodds, and snowboard-cross racer Charlotte Bankes, go into the Games as defending world champions, while hopes are high for the likes of Yorkshire’s Katie Ormerod and Kirsty Muir.

Team GB Chef de Mission Georgina Harland said: “This is an exciting new chapter for British winter sport with a number of new names for the public to get behind and, with athletes who have experienced four Olympics, they will undoubtedly be a great support to the emerging talent.”