MatchFit Moments: Winter Olympics Edition
It’s been the most successful Winter Olympic Games ever for Team GB when it comes to the medal table – 5 medals in one Games, highest medal table finish since UK Sport funding began, the most athletes to ever finish in the top 10. And it’s been just as successful in entertaining the nation as well, with the BBC achieving its largest overall audience consumption, thanks to unprecedented streaming figures.
From “would you have confessed your cheating scandal to the world to win her back?” to reeling off all the curling lingo like the experts we are from one team social at London’s Curling Club, and Snoop Dog’s iconic return to the Olympic stage, it’s been hot on the MatchFit office agenda, but which five moments stood out as our favourite from the Games?
- The Golden Boy
It would only be right to kick things off with Team GB’s star of the show – Matt Weston – who joins Lizzy Yarnold as Great Britain’s most decorated athlete in Winter Olympic history, thanks to his double gold medal winning performance in the ‘Men’s’ and ‘Mixed Team’ skeleton.
An athlete that truly represents hard work and dedication, having come through UK Sport’s athlete recruitment programme – Discover Your Gold – he set track record after track record to cement himself as the best in the world. Hurtling down an ice luge on a metal tray never looked so effortless…
He has also, almost singlehandedly, carried the TeamGB social channels, though his lip-syncing prowess is slightly behind his skeleton skills.
- Excuse me? I’m the most decorated freestyle skier in Olympic history…
She’s officially the most decorated freestyle skier in Olympic history, and whilst her incredible performances and medal tally speak for themselves, it was Eileen Gu’s press conferences that became memorable for all the right reasons.
Whilst unable to defend two of her gold medals from the Beijing 2022 Winter Games, she perfectly captured just how special it is to achieve a podium finish and be recognised amongst the top three in the world. When asked if she saw her success as “two silvers gained, or two golds lost”, she quite literally laughed in their face and celebrated her achievements and place in Olympic history, claiming that “winning a medal at the Olympics is a life changing experience for any athlete”. What a role model for future generations!
- Curling, a tale of two halves
One thing that this Winter Games confirmed is that as a nation, we’re OBSESSED by curling. So much so, 5.5 million of us tuned in for the men’s curling final, during prime Saturday night viewing time. If the MatchFit 2025 Christmas social was anything to go by, we won’t be appearing on the world stage anytime soon – we’ll leave this one up to the pros – but we certainly have the curling lingo nailed down.
But this Games, curling was certainly a tale of two halves.
Whilst it wasn’t the overall set of results Team GB hoped for in the curling, with the women’s team narrowly missing out on a place in the semi-finals after what may be the shot of Rebecca Morrison’s career, and a fourth-place finish for our curling pair, Team Mouat defended their Olympic silver. Despite the incredible achievement, it shows just how much expectation athletes put on themselves and the years of training that all build up to that Olympic moment.
And on the other hand, “cheats never beat”, or in this case, they took home the gold…
Maybe we’re biased because we grew up playing sport and the first rule that was drilled into us is that cheats never beat. Well, this couldn’t have been more wrong when Canada took home gold in the men’s curling competition, after being caught out for cheating earlier in the tournament. It was a scandal that produced some pretty great meme content, but as for sportsmanship and inspiring a generation, maybe not so much.
And it wasn’t just on the ice that cheating scandals dominated…
- Bronze overshadowed by a shocking admission
This certainly takes the top spot for the most talked about issue of the year so far in the MatchFit office. In a post-race interview, after racing to a bronze medal in the biathlon, Sturla Holm Laegreid admitted his regret for cheating on his girlfriend just 3 months prior. What was meant to be a celebration soon became an international debate that hit every headline. Now whilst it’s certainly a new one on us, it very quickly became a PR nightmare!
The worst thing? His public declaration of love didn’t even manage to win his ex-girlfriend back.
And who was it that won gold you ask? We rest our case…
- Sweden’s silver comeback
4 x 7.5km cross-country ski relay - an event that Sweden are usually nailed on to win, didn’t go too smoothly. On the second leg, Ebba Andersson fell not once, but twice, lost her ski, half skied, half ran up the final slope (utter chaos) before passing over the hypothetical baton to her teammate. Having ended the leg in eighth place, Sweden managed to move themselves back into medal contention before taking home the silver medal – was this THE comeback of the Games? Team MatchFit thought so…
One thing this Winter Olympics taught us? Probably not to debate which sport we think we’d be able to compete in. Instead, we’ll just continue to watch from the side lines, and at least we only have to wait a few more days before the curlers hit the ice again though, as the Winter Paralympics get underway.