Great Britain competed at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China, from 4 to 20 February 2022. The Great Britain team consists of 50 athletes (27 men and 23 women). Eve Muirhead and Dave Ryding were the country's flagbearers during the opening ceremony. Meanwhile curler Bruce Mouat was the flagbearer during the closing ceremony.
British athletes won a total of two medals (one gold, one silver). This result was described as a 'disappointment' by UK Sport. Despite the underwhelming games, Great Britain ranked 19th on the medal table, the same ranking as the previous three Winter Olympic Games.
Medal and performance targets
In July 2018, UK Sport announced a preliminary target of 5–12 medals for the Games, which would at least sustain the level of success experienced at the previous two Games, in both of which 5 medals were won. On 13 January 2022, UK Sport confirmed that they have a target of 3–7 medals for the Games.
Summary
The team won two medals (a tally below the 3-7 medal target set by UK Sport) during the course of the Games, both in curling. This is also three medals less than the team achieved at both the 2014 and 2018 Winter Olympics. The women's team, skipped by Eve Muirhead won gold, beating Japan 10-3 in the gold medal game, and the men's team, skipped by Bruce Mouat won silver, having lost the gold medal match to Sweden 5-4 after an extra end. The gold medal from women's curling team ensured Great Britain won at least one gold medal for a fourth consecutive Winter Olympics. However, there was no repeat of the successes of previous Olympic Games in the sliding sports, particularly in skeleton, where Great Britain failed to win a medal - the first time this had happened since skeleton was included as an event. 2018 bronze medallist Laura Deas finished 19th. The team had other high hopes with Charlotte Bankes being one of the favourites to win the Women's Snowboard Cross event, but she was beaten in the quarter-finals and finished ninth overall. Izzy Atkin who won a bronze in 2018 in the Women's Ski Slopestyle also dented the team's hopes of further medals, after she withdrew from the games due to injury.
Upside down flag controversy
At the opening of the 2022 Winter Olympics, Eve Muirhead and Dave Ryding were seen waving the flag upside down. But nobody noticed.
Administration
On 24 May 2020, Team GB announced that former modern pentathlete Georgina Harland would become the first woman to act as Chef de Mission for the British team at an Olympic Games. A bronze medal winner at the 2004 Games in Athens, she went on to serve as a deputy Chef de Mission at both the 2016 and 2020 Summer Games in Rio and Tokyo respectively.
Medallists
The following British competitors won medals at the games. In the by discipline sections below, medallists' names are bolded.
Competitors
The team includes three sets of siblings: Izzy and Zoe Atkin (Freestyle skiing); Leonie and Makayla Gerken Schofield (Freestyle skiing); and Farrell and Niall Treacy (Short track speed skating). Gus Kenworthy (Freestyle skiing) competed for the United States at the 2014 and 2018 Winter Games winning a silver medal at the former. In 2019 he announced that he would seek to represent Great Britain at the 2022 Games. He is a dual national having been born in Chelmsford to a British mother and American father.
Former sprinter Montell Douglas (Bobsleigh) becomes the eighth British athlete to compete at both the Summer and Winter Games. She was preceded by Ethel Muckelt (Figure skating at both Games) and Percy Legard (Modern pentathlon/Nordic combined) in the inter-war period. Like Douglas five other athletes have transferred from athletics to bobsleigh in more recent decades: Colin Campbell; John Herbert; Marcus Adam; Philip Harries; and Allyn Condon. She is the first British woman to compete in different sports at the Summer and Winter Games. Douglas will also be one of two athletes together with Jaqueline Mourão of Brazil to have competed at both Beijing 2008 and 2022.
The following is the list of number of competitors participating at the Games per sport/discipline.
Alpine skiing
Following the qualification period, Great Britain had achieved two quota places in both men's and women's alpine skiing, as a result of which, Great Britain also qualified for the team event. On 21 January 2022, Team GB announced the selection of the four athletes who will represent Great Britain in Beijing led by slalom skier Dave Ryding who will be competing at his fourth Games. On 10 February, Team GB announced that they would not be entering a team in the Mixed Team event.