After the long four-year wait, the Winter Olympics finally returns in 2022, as some of the world’s most talented athletes descend on Beijing for the 24th edition of the Games.
This year’s event will kick off on Friday, and gives a new breed of competitors the chance to write themselves into Winter Olympic folklore.
Across the event’s 98-year history the Games' greatest winter athletes have come away with one of sport’s most coveted prizes, an Olympic medal.
However, like any other sporting event, the Games has thrown up its fair share of shocks over the years, and here is a look at five of the best.
Anders Haugen - 1924 Ski jump
We start by going all the way back to 1924, and at the very first edition of the Winter Olympic Games.
Norwegian-born ski jumper Anders Haugen headed to France to represent the USA, and came agonisingly close to securing himself a medal after finishing just outside the podium places in fourth, or so he thought.
A staggering 50 years later a Norwegian skiing historian figured out that there had in fact been a scoring error at the event, meaning Haugen had actually finished third rather than fourth.
Remarkably the ski jumper was rightfully awarded his bronze medal five decades later in 1974.
Steven Bradbury - 2002 1000m Speed skating
Next up is arguably one of the most dramatic sporting finishes of all time, as the unlikely source of Steven Bradbury won Australia’s very first Winter Olympic gold medal.
Bradbury somewhat fortuitously found himself in the 1000m speed skating final at the Salt Lake City Games in 2002, after taking advantage of a slip from his opponents late on.
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Incredibly for the Aussie though his remarkable luck continued in the finale, as despite being well off the pace with 50m to go, the rest of the field collided late on allowing the Bradbury to breeze from last place to first within a second or two to create Olympic history.
Edward Eagan 1932 - Four-man bobsleigh
In Olympic history only six athletes have claimed a medal at both the Summer and Winter event, however only one has won gold in both and that man is American Edward Eagan.
In 1920 Eagan represented his nation in the boxing ring at the Summer Games, and came away with gold after competing in Antwerp.
12 years later the American was back in the Olympic winners’ circle again, but this time in a bobsleigh, as he made a switch over to the Winter event to win gold in the four-man bobsleigh on home soil in Lake Placid.
Apolo Ohno 2002 - 1500m Speed skating
We return to Salt Lake City and the Speed Skating arena now, as Apolo Ohno’s victory in the 1500m provided even more drama alongside Bradbury’s fortuitous 1000m win.
Ohno is the most decorated American Winter Olympian in the Games’ history, however his first ever gold medal was no doubt a controversial one.
Following the finish of the 2002 1500m final, South Korea’s Kim Dong-Sung was the man who crossed the line first and looked to be the one taking home the gold medal.
However, he was quickly disqualified by judges after being adjudged to have impeded Ohno, who went on to claim first place.
The South Koreans were of course furious and even took their protest to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, however the appeal was denied and the prize stayed with the American.
Team GB - 2002 Women’s Curling
Staying on the Salt Lake ice, we now come away from speed skating and instead to one of the Games’ main events, curling.
Team GB headed into the 2002 event with just one gold medal in the history of the Winter Olympics, however they soon had a second from one of the most unlikely of sources.
The British Women’s Curling team proved to be one of Salt Lake’s giant killers, as they saw off the likes of Sweden, Germany and the heavily favoured Canadian’s to reach the final.
Rhona Cameron. Debbie Knox, Fiona MacDonald and Janice Rankin then went one better, as they defeated the Swiss with the very last stone of the competition to write themselves into Olympic history.
