Great Britain at the 2014 Winter Paralympics

Great Britain at the Paralympic Games

Flag of the United Kingdom
IPC code  GBR
NPC British Paralympic Association
Websitewww.paralympics.org.uk
At the 2014 Winter Paralympics in Sochi
Competitors 12 in 2 sports
Flag bearer Millie Knight (Opening)
Jade Etherington (Closing)[1]
Medals
Rank: 10		 Gold
1		 Silver
3		 Bronze
2		 Total
6
Paralympic history (summary)
Summer Games
Winter Games

Great Britain competed at the 2014 Winter Paralympics in Sochi, Russia, held between 7–16 of March 2014.

Great Britain fielded a total of 12 athletes; a team of five in wheelchair curling, and seven athletes in alpine skiing. The three visually impaired skiers competed with a sighted guide, taking the total number of competitors for Great Britain to fifteen.

The 2014 Winter Paralympic Games were the most successful ever for Great Britain, as they won their first gold medal. They also won their largest number of medals at a Winter Paralympics since 1984.

On 9 March 2014 Jade Etherington, with guide Caroline Powell, won silver in the women's visually impaired downhill. On 10 March 2014, they won bronze in the women's visually impaired Super-G. In the same event, Kelly Gallagher and her guide Charlotte Evans won the gold medal, the first for Great Britain at a Winter Paralympics.

On 12 March 2014 Jade Etherington and guide Caroline Powell won another silver in the Women's visually impaired slalom. They won a third silver medal in the Women's combined on 14 March 2014, making them the most successful GB Winter Paralympians. It also meant ParalympicsGB met the high end of the Alpine Skiing target of five medals.

On 15 March 2014 the wheelchair curling team won the bronze medal match, beating China 7-3. They had qualified for the playoff rounds in fourth place, losing to China 6-3 in the final match. They lost to Russia 13-4 in the semifinals. The result meant ParalympicsGB met their performance target for wheelchair curling.

Medalists

Medals by date
Day Date 1st 2nd 3rd Total
Day 1 8 March 0 1 0 1
Day 2 9 March 0 0 0 0
Day 3 10 March 1 0 1 2
Day 4 11 March 0 0 0 0
Day 5 12 March 0 1 0 1
Day 6 13 March 0 0 0 0
Day 7 14 March 0 1 0 1
Day 8 15 March 0 0 1 1
Day 9 16 March 0 0 0 0
Total 1 3 2 6
Medal Name Sport Event Classification Date
 Gold Kelly Gallagher
Guide: Charlotte Evans 		Alpine skiing Women's super-G Visually impaired 10 March
 Silver Jade Etherington
Guide: Caroline Powell 		Alpine skiing Women's downhill Visually impaired 8 March
 Silver Jade Etherington
Guide: Caroline Powell 		Alpine skiing Women's slalom Visually impaired 12 March
 Silver Jade Etherington
Guide: Caroline Powell 		Alpine skiing Women's combined Visually impaired 14 March
 Bronze Jade Etherington
Guide: Caroline Powell 		Alpine skiing Women's super-G Visually impaired 10 March
 Bronze Aileen Neilson (skip)
Gregor Ewan
Jim Gault
Angie Malone
Bob McPherson
Wheelchair curling Team Wheelchair 15 March
Medals by sport
Sport 1st 2nd 3rd Total
Alpine skiing 1 3 1 5
Wheelchair curling 0 0 1 1
Total 1 3 2 6

Medal and performance targets

On 16 January 2014, the funding body UK Sport announced their medal targets for ParalympicsGB at the 2014 Winter Paralympic Games in Sochi.[2] The target was set at two medals; although the funding body predicted that Great Britain had the potential to win as many as six medals, this total was not widely expected to be reached. On 15 March, the penultimate day of the Games, that 6 medal 'stretch target' was nonetheless achieved, following the success of the wheelchair curling team in its bronze medal match against China.

Key Red X Target missed Green tick Target met
Sport Medal target set Non medal target Results Performance relative to target range
Alpine skiing 2–5  — 5 medals
1st2nd2nd2nd3rd 		Green tick
Wheelchair curling 0–1 Top four 3rd Green tick
Total 2–6  — 6 medals Green tick
Total gold  —  — 1  —

UK Sport funding

In the Winter Paralympic Cycle running from 2010 to 2014 the UK government body UK Sport allocated a budget of over three quarters of a million to fund ParalympicsGB for the individual athletes as well as the wheelchair curling team for the 2014 Winter Paralympics in Sochi.

Sport Funding
Alping skiing £405,400
Wheelchair curling £350,200
Total £755,600

Alpine skiing

Britain’s alpine skiing team consisted of seven competitors. In the visually impaired categories Kelly Gallagher, Jade Etherington and Millie Knight represented Britain, racing with their respective guides, Charlotte Evans, Caroline Powell and Rachael Ferrier.[3]

Great Britain was represented in the sit-skiing category by Mick Brennan, Ben Sneesby and Anna Turney, while James Whitley was the sole British competitor in the standing events.[3]

Women

Athlete Classification Event Run 1 Run 2 Final/Total
Time Diff Rank Time Diff Rank Time Diff Rank
Jade Etherington
Guide: Caroline Powell		 Visually impaired Downhill N/A 1:34.28 +2.73 2nd
Super-G N/A 1:29.76 +1.04 3rd
Super Combined 1:01.80 +3.12 2 1:26.58 — 1 2:28.38 +0.63 2nd
Slalom 1:00.87 — 1 1:01.02 +1.20 3 2:01.89 +0.65 2nd
Giant Slalom DNS Did not advance
Kelly Gallagher
Guide: Charlotte Evans		 Visually impaired Downhill N/A 1:37.36 +5.81 6
Super-G N/A 1:28.72 — 1st
Super Combined DNF Did not advance
Slalom DNF Did not advance
Giant Slalom DNF Did not advance
Millie Knight
Guide: Rachael Ferrier		 Visually impaired Slalom 1:09.87 +9.00 6 1:08.90 +9.08 6 2:18.77 +17.53 5
Giant Slalom 1:39.66 +11.04 5 1:27.68 +7.67 5 3:07.34 +18.71 5
Anna Turney Sitting Downhill N/A DNF
Super-G N/A 1:35.27 +6.16 4
Super Combined 1:19.85 +19.12 5 DNF
Slalom 1:13.94 +8.87 6 1:14.39 +9.53 6 2:28.33 +18.40 6
Giant Slalom 1:55.41 +24.97 11 1:25.35 +5.69 5 3:20.76 +29.50 8

Men

Athlete Classification Event Run 1 Run 2 Final/Total
Time Diff Rank Time Diff Rank Time Diff Rank
Mick Brennan Sitting Super-G N/A 1:30.48 +10.97 10
Super Combined 1:14.85 +16.14 9 1:25.89 +7.62 7 2:40.74 +22.54 8
Slalom DSQ Did not advance
Giant Slalom 1:23.79 +5.69 14 1:21.09 +6.99 14 2:44.88 +12.15 14
Ben Sneesby Sitting Slalom 1:01.62 +8.88 17 1:03.68 +4.25 11 2:05.30 +11.52 11
Giant Slalom 1:26.96 +8.86 21 DNF Did not advance
James Whitley Standing Slalom 54.84 +7.15 20 58.59 +7.31 15 1:53.43 +14.46 15
Giant Slalom 1:24.64 +9.92 20 1:18.14 +6.99 13 2:42.78 4+16.91 14

Wheelchair curling

In wheelchair curling, Great Britain's team was Aileen Neilson, Jim Gault, Gregor Ewan, Bob McPherson and Angie Malone.[3] Tom Killin was initially named in the squad, but had to be replaced by Jim Gault just before the start of the competition, as an illness meant doctors advised him not to travel.[4]

Round Robin

Standings

Final round robin standings

Key
Teams to playoffs
Country
 Skip W L PF PA
Russia Andrei Smirnov 8 1 60 38
Canada Jim Armstrong 7 2 66 42
China Wang Haitao 5 4 54 45
Great Britain Aileen Neilson 5 4 53 56
Slovakia Radoslav Ďuriš 4 5 47 68
United States Patrick McDonald 4 5 56 42
Sweden Jalle Jungnell 4 5 59 49
South Korea Kim Myung-jin 3 6 41 74
Norway Rune Lorentsen 3 6 45 62
Finland Markku Karjalainen 2 7 61 58

Results

Great Britain had a bye in draws 2, 5 and 10.

Draw 1
Sheet C 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Final
Canada (Armstrong) 0 0 2 0 1 1 1 1 6

Great Britain (Neilson) 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 3

Draw 3
Sheet B 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Final
Sweden (Jungnell) 0 0 1 0 3 0 0 0 4

Great Britain (Neilson) 1 0 0 1 0 2 1 1 6

Draw 4
Sheet D 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Final
Great Britain (Neilson) 1 1 1 0 0 0 5 X 8

South Korea (Kim) 0 0 0 2 1 1 0 X 4

Draw 6
Sheet A 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Final
Slovakia (Ďuriš) 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 X 2

Great Britain (Neilson) 0 2 1 2 1 4 2 X 12

Draw 7
Sheet C 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Final
Great Britain (Neilson) 0 0 1 0 0 3 0 X 4

Finland (Karjalainen) 1 4 0 3 5 0 0 X 13

Draw 8
Sheet B 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Final
Norway (Lorentsen) 0 1 0 0 0 2 0 X 3

Great Britain (Neilson) 1 0 1 1 1 0 3 X 7

Draw 9
Sheet D 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Final
Russia (Smirnov) 0 2 2 0 2 0 5 X 11

Great Britain (Neilson) 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 X 2

Draw 11
Sheet B 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 EE Final
Great Britain (Neilson) 0 0 1 0 1 0 5 0 1 8

United States (McDonald) 2 1 0 2 0 1 0 1 0 7

Draw 12
Sheet A 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Final
Great Britain (Neilson) 0 0 1 0 0 1 1 X 3

China (Wang) 1 1 0 3 1 0 0 X 6

Playoffs

Semifinal
Sheet 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Final
Russia (Smirnov) 1 3 0 7 1 0 1 X 13

Great Britain (Neilson) 0 0 3 0 0 1 0 X 4

Bronze Medal Game
Sheet 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Final
Great Britain (Neilson) 0 0 2 2 1 1 1 X 7

China (Wang) 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 X 3

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Etherington named as ParalympicsGB Flag-bearer in Recognition of Medal Success".
  2. ↑ "UK Sport confirms medal targets for Sochi 2014".
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 "GB announce strong team for Sochi Paralympics". channel4.com. 23 January 2014. Retrieved 31 January 2014.
  4. ↑ "Killin out of GB curling team for Sochi". Channel 4. 28 February 2014. Retrieved 12 March 2014.

External links