It's the greatest show on ice. The 24th Winter Olympic Games are set to be the biggest ever: 2,871 athletes from 91 nations will be competing in 109 events to win that sweet, elusive gold.
Beijing is to become the first city to host both the Summer and Winter Olympics, though the run up to the event has been somewhat mired in controversy surrounding China's human rights violations, especially regarding the minority Uyghur ethnic group in Xinjiang. Last year, the UK Parliament passed a non-binding motion declaring China's actions as genocide. China's record on human rights has been covered extensively by multiple international bodies, with questions subsequently raised over the legitimacy of the country's hosting of the event and the potential for sportswashing.
This has led to a series of diplomatic boycotts, including by the UK, USA, Australia and Canada, meaning that while there will be no official delegation from these countries present at the Games, athletes are still free to pursue their dreams of following in the footsteps of their athletic idols.
Thanks to Olympians of old like Marit Bjørgen, Yuna Kim, Amy Williams – and a certain Eagle – the Winter Games have provided some of sport's greatest dramas; feats of daring, dedication and luck that live long in the memory.
Here are 12 of our favourite moments (with a not-so-subtle GB bias).
12. Sarajevo shines (1984)
The work to make Sarajevo host of the 1984 Winter Olympics actually began in 1970: the third-largest city in Yugoslavia had hosted international competitions before, but making the leap to Olympic standard was another matter entirely. The city won the right to host 1984's Winter Olympics by three votes, and went on the prove that it was the correct decision with a smooth, trouble-free Games that helped both modernise Sarajevo and develop winter sports in Yugoslavia. Eight years later, war in Bosnia and Herzegovina would see almost all of Sarajevo's Olympic venues destroyed, but many have been rebuilt, and the city's pride in hosting such a successful Olympics remains undiminished to this day.
11. Shaun White owns the half-pipe (Vancouver, 2010)
Snowboarding made its Olympic debut in 1998 with the giant slalom and half-pipe events, but its popularity grew in the noughties thanks in no small part to the popularity of riders like Shaun White. His half-pipe gold at Turin 2006 put him on course to become one of winter sports' global stars, with a collection of other titles and even a video game under his belt as Vancouver 2010 rolled around. White was strong favourite to retain the title, and The Flying Tomato lived up to his nickname. He blew the competition away, putting in such a polished first run that gold was already his before he'd left the half-pipe. Not resting on his laurels, White went for it during his second run, performing a double McTwist 1260 he named “The Tomahawk”, seen as one of the greatest moves in elite sport.
10. Marit Bjørgen becomes the G.O.A.T (Pyeongchang, 2018)
When it comes to the Winter Olympics, Norway is the real deal. The Nordic powerhouse has won the most Winter Games medals (if you don't lump together all the various Germanies that have competed over the years) by a comfortable margin, consistently producing world-topping athletes. At the pinnacle of the pinnacle is cross-country skier Marit Bjørgen, who became the most decorated Winter Olympian of all time in 2018 with her eighth gold and fifteenth medal from five Games. Places two and three on the all-time list are taken by Ole Einar Bjørndalen and Bjørn Dæhlie from – you guessed it – Norway.
9. Ester Ledecká doubles up (Pyeongchang, 2018)
Isn't it annoying when someone's good at everything? The slopes of Pyeongchang will have been full of that sentiment when world-champion snowboarder Ester Ledecká won gold in the parallel double slalom, dusted off the snow and strapped on the skis. Ledecká started the Super-G alpine skiing ranked 49th and had never medalled in any World Cup level international skiing event. She took the title 0.01 seconds ahead of defending champion Anna Veith, becoming the first athlete to win gold in two separate sports at the same Olympics.
Such a tight victory is only possible to measure due to the development of timekeeping technology: it's not your dad's stopwatch anymore. Raynald Aeschlimann, CEO of Omega Watches, reflected on this for GQ: “As Official Timekeeper of the Olympic Games since 1932, Omega has played a crucial role in many of sport's most iconic moments. In sport at this level, the difference between gold and silver can come down to microseconds.” The tech certainly came through for Ledecká.
8. Curling finally comes home (Salt Lake City, 2002)
Curling's coming home. Five Scottish curlers, skipped by Rhona Martin, reached Salt Lake City 2002 and made it all the way to the final. It came down to the last stone, which Martin perfectly judged to overcome the heavy Swiss favourites and bring curling gold back to the country that invented the sport in the 16th Century. Balancing full-time jobs and family responsibilities with their training, Martin, Debbie Knox, Fiona MacDonald, Janice Rankin and Margaret Morton became Great Britain's first gold medallists at a Winter Olympics for 18 years and the first Scots since 1936 to claim a Winter Games title. Heroes.
7. Midori Ito's Triple Axel jump (Albertville, 1992)
If at first you don't succeed, be like Midori Ito. The Japanese figure skater had been the first woman to land the groundbreaking Triple Axel in competition four years before the 1992 Albertville Winter Olympics, and had the performing the feat at Olympic level firmly in her sights. Slipping on her first attempt didn't faze her, as the second time round was picture perfect. Ito took away a silver medal, the first in figure skating for an Asian country at the Winter Olympics. Only two other women have achieved the remarkable jump at Olympic level since.
6. Steven Bradbury coasts to victory (Salt Lake City, 2002)
Australia's Steven Bradbury was a speed skating veteran, but 2002 marked the first Olympic final in the 30-year-old's career. Unsurprisingly, “Australian speed skater” was quite a difficult career path, with little funding or support, and one particularly nasty collaboration between his leg and an opponent's blade. All of this was to be worth it, however, in the final of the 1,000m speed skating event in Salt Lake City.
This was his fourth Winter Olympics, and likely to be his last. He'd won a bronze eight years before in the men's 5,000m relay – Australia's first medal at the Winter Olympics – but had faced disappointment since. A lucky break in the semi-final saw him in the final against multiple gold medal winners at the top of their game. The competition was fierce: too fierce, it turned out, as the rest of the field jockeyed each other to the floor on the final bend and Bradbury was left to leisurely skate the last few metres to become the Southern Hemisphere's first-ever golden Winter Olympian.
5. Torvill & Dean dance "Bolero" (Sarajevo, 1984)
Long before they were contributing to ITV's probably now sky-high insurance premium with Dancing on Ice, Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean were Great Britain's ice dance superstars. Their gold-medal-winning performance to Ravel's “Boléro” received top marks across the board and confirmed their place among the greatest British Olympians. They remain the highest-scoring figure skaters in Olympics history, and it's no wonder: you'll struggle to find anything more elegant than their Sarajevo routine.
4. Yuna Kim dazzles in Canada (Vancouver, 2010)
Yuna Kim's performance in the 2010 women's figure skating event will go down as one of the finest individual performances in Winter Olympic history. “Queen Yuna”, as she's known to her fans, went into the Vancouver Games as favourite to win the gold, and she didn't disappoint. Her first round, performed to a James Bond medley, broke her first world record. The second round broke another two; her world record combined score is yet to be beaten. Not a bad day at the office.
3. The Miracle on Ice (Lake Placid, 1980)
1980, Lake Placid, New York. The mighty Soviet Union men's ice hockey team, winners of the last four gold medals, were facing a young USA team made up almost entirely of college amateurs, who had already surprised the crowds with shock results to make it to the deciding round robin. Trailing 3-2 after the second period, the ragtag group of college ice hockey players scored twice in the third to win 4-3 and complete the most remarkable upset in the history of the Winter Olympics.
This wasn't the gold-deciding match, however, as the round-robin format meant the USA needed to beat Finland to secure the crown. Captain Mike Eruzione described how coach Herb Brooks, with the USA facing a 2-1 deficit after the second period, came into the dressing room, said “If you lose this game, you'll take it to your fucking graves”, and left. They won 4-2.
2. Eddie “the Eagle” Edwards takes flight (Calgary, 1988)
We all love an underdog, and they don't come much better than Michael ‘Eddie’ Edwards. After failing to qualify for GB's ski team at the 1984 Games, Eddie decided to try his hand at ski jumping. He immediately became the country's foremost ski jumper, due to a pretty limited field exclusively made up of him. Four years later, after an unsupported tour around Europe to qualify (including staying in a Finnish mental health hospital for £1 a night) the personification of the Olympic Spirit was invited to Calgary as the country's only ski jumper, finished dead last in both events (scoring half the total points of the nearest competitor), and promptly became a national hero. The president of the Olympic Committee nicknamed him “Eddie the Eagle”, and his legend was cemented. There's even a film about Eddie's career starring Taron Egerton and Hugh Jackman – talk about making the best of what you've been given.
1. Jamaica's bobsleigh debut (Calgary, 1988)
'Nuff people say they know they can't believe,
Jamaica we have a bobsled team
Jamaica's Winter Olympics debut is perhaps the most famous of all, thanks to 1993's Cool Runnings. The filmmakers embellished the unlikely story of the 1988 Jamaican bobsleigh team, but the reality was ready-made for the big screen. The team was a more professionally-built outfit, with officials finding talent in both the country's incredible sprinting pool and armed forces, and this paid dividends as the two-man bob finished a respectable 30th out of 41 teams.
The heartwarming camaraderie shown by Jamaica's rivals is the perfect symbol for proper Olympian spirit, but the events around Jamaica's four-man bob team are the most famous. Crashing during their third run, and sliding heads-down for a stomach-churningly long time, the four-man team was determined to finish, and walked the remaining length to the finish line. The desire to finish what they started is perhaps the defining moment of the Games.
In this year's Olympics, Jamaica has qualified for three bobsleigh events for the first time in the country's history: the four-man bob (the first time in 24 years), two-man bob and the women's monobob. Jamaica now has a strong bobsleigh heritage, and this year's squad is there to compete. Just listen to two-man and four-man pilot Shanwayne Stephens, who told olympics.com that "We're more than just a movie.
"We want to show we're actually fierce competitors and we're out there to put on a really good performance at the Games." We're all Team Jamaica.
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If you’re hyped about the games after reliving these iconic moments, head to the OMEGA Olympic House pop up in London’s Burlington Arcade. Open until the end of February, there are some rare Olympic timepieces on show as well as a number of historical timekeeping devices from past Games.
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