Great Britain has concluded its most successful Winter Olympic Games in history, securing an unprecedented medal tally throughout the nineteen days of intense competition in Milan and Cortina. The Press Association provides a comprehensive statistical analysis of the 2026 Games and Britain's evolving performance record over the decades.
Britain's Greatest Winter Games Achievement
For the first time at a Winter Olympics, Team GB clinched multiple gold medals, with skeleton star Matt Weston alone surpassing any previous individual British tally. Weston triumphed in the men's skeleton event before partnering with Tabby Stoecker to secure gold in the mixed team skeleton competition. This victory came just hours after Charlotte Bankes and Huw Nightingale celebrated another gold medal in the mixed team snowboard cross.
Bruce Mouat guided the men's curling team to a silver medal, while Zoe Atkin concluded the competition with a bronze in the ski halfpipe. The total of five medals matches Britain's best winter tally, equalling the one gold, one silver, and three bronze medals achieved at Sochi 2014, followed by a gold and four bronze at Pyeongchang 2018.
Skeleton Extends Its Dominant Lead
Skeleton remains Britain's most successful Winter Olympic discipline, now boasting eleven medals—three more than any other sport—thanks to the efforts of Weston and Stoecker. Lizzy Yarnold's two golds and Amy Williams' one contribute to a total of five golds, with Shelley Rudman winning silver in 2006 and five bronze medals spanning from David Carnegie in 1928 to Laura Deas and Dominic Parsons in 2018.
Figure skating has contributed eight medals, excluding those from its appearances in the 1908 and 1920 Summer Olympics, but none since the era of Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean. The pair won Britain's last skating gold at Sarajevo 1984, with their bronze in Lillehammer a decade later marking the most recent medal.
Curling and Snowboarding Milestones
Mouat's team secured Britain's seventh curling medal, marking the second as a quartet after their silver in Beijing four years ago. Bobsleigh remains on five medals after Brad Hall's four-man crew narrowly missed out on adding to the count.
Bankes and Nightingale earned Britain's first ever gold medal on snow, adding to third-place finishes by Jenny Jones in 2014 and Billy Morgan in 2018, bringing the total snowboarding medals to three. Atkin emulated her elder sister Izzy, a freestyle skiing bronze-medallist in 2018.
Nicky Gooch's short-track speed skating bronze in 1994 ensures that eight sports have now contributed at least one British medal at the Winter Olympics.
World Records and New Frontiers in Global Competition
Beyond Team GB's historic achievements, Norway topped the overall medal table with eighteen gold medals and forty-one in total, largely due to Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo's record-breaking performances in cross country skiing. Klaebo won six gold medals, the most ever by an athlete at a single Winter Games, a tally that would have placed him ninth if ranked as an independent nation.
The United States secured twelve golds, while the Netherlands and host nation Italy each won ten, with Germany completing the top five. In a landmark moment, Brazil recorded its first-ever Winter Olympic medal with Lucas Pinheiro Braathen's giant slalom gold.
This achievement placed the South American nation among twenty countries with Olympic champions this year and twenty-nine on the medal table overall. Additionally, Switzerland's Marianne Fatton made history as the first ever Olympic ski mountaineering champion as the sport debuted at the Games.
