Yarnold leads charge

GREAT BRITAIN will send its biggest Winter Olympics team to Pyeongchang, with 59 athletes selected to compete in South Korea.

Team GB will be hoping to surpass the best return of four medals — achieved in Chamonix in 1924 and four years ago in Sochi — for the Games which run from February 9-25. Short track speedskating world champion Elise Christie heads a number of strong British contenders and UK Sport have set a target of at least five medals.

Lizzy Yarnold defends the gold she won in Sochi in the women’s skeleton. Jenny Jones won snowboard bronze in 2014 and the men’s and women’s curling teams claimed silver and bronze respectively. The Sochi medal tally could yet rise if the men’s bobsleigh team are awarded a retrospective bronze as a result of the hearings into Russian doping. The GB team have further realistic medal prospects in curling, skiing, snowboarding, skeleton and bobsleigh.