WINTER MEDALS ARE EASY PICKINGS

GREAT BRITAIN are sending their biggest ever Winter Olympics team to Pyeongchang. That can mean only one thing. Low-hanging fruit has been identified and in the coming weeks will be duly plucked. It’s perfect for us. Half the planet isn’t there, mainly the black half, meaning it is pretty much a European event. There have been 151 different countries awarded medals at the Summer Olympics, compared to 45 in the Winter Games — four of which are Germany (East, West, United Team of Germany and Germany) and three from Czechoslovakia (Slovakia, Czechoslovakia and Czech Republic). Central America, South America and Africa have never won a medal at a Winter Olympics — indeed just 10 non-European nations have (United States, Canada, South Korea, Japan, China, North Korea, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, New Zealand and Australia). In a country obsessed with elite medals above grass roots, this is our Games. That is why we’re throwing money at skeleton and you can’t get a basketball court built.