by Few sporting events can generate as much unrelenting drama and consistent controversy as the Winter Olympics, which celebrate their 100th anniversary on Thursday.
From fearless bobsleigh pilots to sequined ice queens, head-turning curlers and thrill-seeking snowboarders, the Games have their own unique place and stars in the world’s sporting calendar.
Here, PA news agency Olympic correspondent Mark Staniforth picks eight of his favorite moments from the six Winter Olympics he’s covered, starting with Salt Lake City in 2002.
Steven Bradbury, 2002
Bradbury claimed Australia’s first Winter Olympic gold medal in sensational fashion when all four of his rivals in the men’s short track 1,000m final crashed out in the final corner. The old Bradbury lab, who was competing in his fourth Games and was almost fifty laps down at the time of the incident, managed to make his way through the wreckage. “Oh my God,” Bradbury thought as he crossed the line, “I think I won.”
Rhona Martin, 2002
Martin led her self-styled squad of east Ayrshire housewives into the Olympic curling final against all odds, after suffering elimination in the finals. Messages from prime ministers and a beleaguered nation were shown early in the opening hours as Martin delivered his famous ‘Stone of Destiny’, securing a dramatic victory over Switzerland and writing his name in British sporting folklore.
Lindsey Jacobellis, 2006
As if to emphasize the anarchic spirit of snowboard-cross, included in the Olympic program for the first time in Turin, American favorite Jacobellis tried a completely unnecessary trick from his last jump and fell, giving gold to Tanja Frieden Switzerland. In a (very) belated twist, Jacobellis would make up for her missed opportunity by winning gold in the same event in Beijing in 2018.
Kim Yu-na, 2010
Figure skating superstar Yuna Kim entered the 2010 Vancouver Games as a strong favorite to win the gold. And she delivered! ⛸️
Yuna was the first South Korean figure skater to win a medal in any real figure skating discipline at the Olympics. 🇰🇷@Yunaaaaa | @Cóiré_Olympeach | @ISU_Figure
— The Olympics (@Olympics) March 11, 2021
Glittering in a cobalt blue dress, the prodigious South Korean figure skater lit up the Pacific Coliseum with a world record-breaking free skate. Kim’s performance, which earned an unbeaten total score of 228.56, capped another dramatic and emotional women’s singles event, in which home favorite Jeannie Rochette took bronze, despite being told of her mother’s death within days of for her to come to Vancouver.
Amy Williams, 2010
One week after the tragic death of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili in a training accident, skeleton racer Amy Williams hit the famous Whistler track to become Britain’s first individual Winter Olympic gold medalist for 30 years. The unfancied Williams set a new record during four dominant runs that saw her clear the rest of the field by a cumulative total of more than half a second. “Speed is my friend”, grinned Williams afterwards.
Lizzy Yarnold, 2014
Britain’s unlikely dominance of Olympic skeleton continued in Sochi in 2014 as Lizzy Yarnold built on a dominant World Cup season to emulate her since-retired compatriot Williams and win Winter Olympic gold. Yarnold went on to overcome a series of health problems and successfully defended her crown in Pyeongchang in 2018, where she was joined on the podium by teammate Laura Deas.
Billy Morgan, 2018
Four years earlier in Sochi, Morgan drowned out the memory of a disappointing 10th place finish in the men’s snowboard downhill competition by tackling apres ski with a toilet seat hanging around his neck. Four years later, against all imaginable odds, he turned the toilet seat into an Olympic bronze medal, courtesy of one spectacular last jump in the men’s initiative big air competition.
Real skating, 2022
A 15-year-old delivering an unforgettable short routine as it unfolds before the eyes of the world; teammates landing quads for fun and then disaffected with money, vowing never to skate again only to return three days later in the post-Games gala dressed as Wonder Woman; Nathan Chen’s perfect skating rendition of Elton John’s ‘Rocket Man’: the real-life skating competition in Beijing kicked off a bleak, Covid-stricken Games, and created controversy that continues.
