Team GB’s 2026 Winter Olympics line-up features several medal prospects who will be tasked with making it their most successful Games to date in Italy
Team GB is targeting its most successful Winter Olympics at the Milano Cortina Games. UK Sport, which funds Olympic and Paralympic sports across the UK, is predicting between four and eight medals in northern Italy.
Britain’s best showing at a Winter Games previously came at Sochi 2014 and Pyeongchang 2018, where five medals (including one gold) were clinched. However, Team GB performance bosses are raising their expectations even further this time.
This optimism stems from the fact the Team GB contingent heading to Italy includes world champions, X Games gold medallists and World Cup podium finishers. The 2024/25 season saw Britain’s winter athletes claim nine World Championship medals across different sports.
British skiers and snowboarders secured 28 major podiums in Olympic events, claimed three Crystal Globes (overall World Cup titles) and one World Championship crown, courtesy of Zoe Atkin. Chef de mission Eve Muirhead, who won curling gold in 2022, described preparations as “meticulous” with a “focus on creating the conditions that allow athletes to deliver when it matters most.”
She added: “The potential within this team is exceptionally high, and while we don’t always benefit from the same ease of access to snow and ice as some of our rivals, when I look at the class of 2026, I see a real opportunity to challenge the status quo.”
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With the bar set high for Team GB in the men’s skeleton, men’s and mixed curling teams, as well as skiing and snowboarding disciplines, Mirror Sport examines our top contenders to secure medals in Italy.
Matt Weston – Skeleton
Double men’s skeleton world champion Weston claimed three consecutive overall World Cup crowns between 2023 and 2026. Currently leading the men’s rankings, Weston triumphed in five of this season’s seven World Cup events. He secured silver behind team-mate Marcus Wyatt in the other two, with Wyatt also tipped to reach the podium.
Kirsty Muir – Freestyle skiing (big air, slopestyle)
Two-time World Cup gold medallist Muir won slopestyle gold in Tignes last season and claimed the big air crown in Secret Garden, China, in November. At the recent Aspen X Games, she secured slopestyle gold and big air silver.
Mia Brookes – Snowboarding (big air, slopestyle)
Brookes made history in 2023 by becoming snowboarding’s youngest ever world champion at just 16 years old, claiming slopestyle gold. She has won consecutive big air Crystal Globes and secured World Cup gold in December, alongside slopestyle gold and big air bronze at the recent X Games. Brookes has the potential to become Team GB’s first Olympic gold or silver medallist on snow.
Zoe Atkin – Freestyle skiing (halfpipe)
Atkin is the current halfpipe world champion and has clinched three podium finishes from three starts on the World Cup circuit this season, including a gold. She also managed to win gold at the recent X Games.
Charlotte Bankes – Snowboarding (snowboard cross)
Bankes became world champion in 2021 and secured the mixed team title two years later alongside British team-mate Huw Nightingale. She has won the Crystal Globe overall World Cup title on two occasions, while finishing runner-up in the standings in 2024 and 2025, with the latter campaign being hampered by a broken collarbone.
Lewis Gibson and Lilah Fear – Figure skating (ice dance)
The duo could deliver Britain’s first Olympic figure skating medal since 1994. Fear and Gibson are widely seen as the finest British figure-skating partnership since Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean. They have also claimed four European medals and are two-time Grand Prix Final bronze medallists.
Team Mouat – Curling
Bruce Mouat’s British curlers are tipped to build on their silver medal from 2022. They are the reigning curling world champions, having also claimed the title in 2023. They secured three consecutive European crowns between 2021 and 2023.
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The Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games is running from February 6-22 and fans can enjoy more than 850 hours of action live on discovery+ via Prime Video.
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