Exponential investment into winter sports has transformed Team GB into a squad with record-breaking medal potential—but Olympic champion Amy Williams is adamant funding needs to keep up with British ambition.
On slopes and slides, mere hundredths of a second will decide who gets gold, silver and bronze in Beijing.
But behind the scenes, immense integers are instrumental to fractional gains, and Bath-based Williams is anxious to see if millions of additional pounds awarded to British winter athletes since her 2010 skeleton gold could lead to unprecedented success over the next few weeks.
“Athletes now train completely differently,” said Williams, 39, looking out at the track at British Bobsleigh and Skeleton's University of Bath headquarters.
“We didn’t even have a nutritionist, we only had a psychologist for a few hours before the Olympics. Now all of that is a day-to-day, weekly normality.
“It’s an exciting thing across all sports that the advances are there for the athletes to get better and better.
“It’s just those one per cents.
“One per cents in so many different areas, that might be one-tenth of a second for you in your sport. That could be a medal or no medal.”
If money talks, it would be sure to remind you that nearly a third of Britain’s 32 winter Olympic medals have come in the last two Games.
Team GB tied a team-best medal haul in South Korea, matching the five earned at Sochi 2014, with optimistic forecasters projecting as many as seven in Beijing across sports including snowboarding, skeleton and curling.
And if pounds produce progress, perhaps no one would be more grateful for the cash infusion than freestyle skier James Woods, who narrowly missed a medal in PyeongChang, finishing just 1.4 points out of slopestyle bronze.
Investment in GB Snowsport has more than doubled in the last four years, from £5.2 million in the PyeongChang cycle to £11.1 million for Beijing, with ambitious aims of becoming a top-five snowsport nation by 2030.
Mindset, believes Williams, is the other fractional factor—another reason having a full complement of support staff year-round can make or break a dream coming true, especially under the added stress of the pandemic.
“He’s good enough,” she insisted. “He’s got the skillset, he’s got the knowledge, he’s got the experience.
“So it’s just in that mind, that little one per cent. You know, do you wake up and you’re just too nervous on the day? That extra little bit of body tension could just be enough to not land a trick.
“That’s where it really comes down. You might have every athlete that physically has got all the skills but the one that holds it together mentally will be the one that pushes through.”
Williams’ gold was the third in a dynastic six-medal skeleton run for British women, stretching five consecutive Olympics since Alex Coomber’s 2002 Salt Lake City bronze.
With back-to-back champion Lizzy Yarnold hanging up her sled after PyeongChang, 33-year-old Laura Deas, who claimed bronze four years ago, is the only veteran on Team GB’s Beijing-bound squad.
In July 2021, UK Sport infused another £90,000 into skeleton, both to boost the Beijing-bound squad and develop new talent for Milano Cortina 2026.
Bobsleigh, on the other hand, was not UK Sport-funded during most of this Olympic cycle despite a best-ever British result in two-woman bobsleigh by returning pilot Mica McNeill, but received a £40,000 boost in October.
Williams acknowledged there’s still a catch-22 in play: money fuels progress, but performance inspires investment, so athletes will be under pressure in China.
She explained: “Year on year, as all sports are more successful, success generally brings in more money, brings in more support.
“And the advances in technology are huge, whether that means your equipment can be better, the money and the research that goes into the technology and research development.”
For a rare few, like Williams, all the hard work does eventually pay off.
She added: “The relief, being so proud to have that gold medal to bring home to your country, singing that national anthem is a moment I’ll never ever forget.
“And I just wish that other athletes can have that same feeling and bring home medals for Great Britain.”
Watch All the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 live on discovery+ , Eurosport and Eurosport app
