Four years on from the Beijing Games and the ambition for Team GB in Milan Cortina is exactly the same: win a record number of winter Olympic medals and come home to Great Britain with multiple golds.

Vicky Gosling, the CEO of GB Snowsport, tells The Athletic she is “super excited” for these Games: “The team is in great form, we’ve had this upward trajectory, we’ve got incredible strength in depth.”

“It’s really important to have that ambition,” Gosling says of the target to take between four and eight Olympic medals, which is set for Team and Paralympics GB by UK Sport, the government agency that invests National Lottery funding.

The most Great Britain have managed is five (in Sochi, 2014, and Pyeongchang, 2018) and they have never won multiple golds — which is another target.

Gosling, though, understandably has the events of 2022 fresh in her mind, and is not a fan of predicting or expecting medals. “The Olympics amplify everything,” she said. “We’re in such high-risk sport, anything can happen.”

GB went to Beijing with the same record-breaking intentions and only came away with two medals, taking gold in the women’s and silver in the men’s team curling — their premier winter sport.

There were no medals in skeleton for GB, an event in which they had podium success in every Games since its reintroduction in 2002, and funding was consequently cut for Alpine, cross-country and para-Nordic skiing.

Gosling wants to offer context: “Everybody always says that ‘Beijing was a disaster’,” speaking specifically from a snowsports perspective. GB, historically, do just fine on the ice (curling, figure skating, bobsleigh, skeleton).

“But people also miss out the context that we had two years of the pandemic, and we can’t train these athletes in the back garden.

“That was a real challenge and a moment of realism that we are competing against nations who have access to the mountain ranges during that COVID period. We did not, that sets us back significantly.”

Gosling points out that “a lot of best results ever at the Games (were) kind of missed because we didn’t bring home (more) medals.” Team and Paralympics GB also track athletes’ finishes in the top eight positions, an indicator of potential even when medals are not won — their seven top-eight finishes in 2022 were consistent with previous Games.

Vicky Gosling, CEO of GB Snowsport, is optimistic of Team GB’s chances in Italy. (Alex Davidson/Getty Images for eSC)

There has been significant progress since 2022. GB Snowsport are no longer purely reliant on public funding, and Gosling points out something Team GB highlighted with data visualisations in their media briefing in mid-January: This generation knows how to win.

“Prior to 2018, we had one world championship medal and we had zero crystal globes (given to World Cup winners in skiing, snowboarding, Nordic, ski jump and cross-country). We’ve now got 10 world champions and 18 crystal globes. We need to build on that and ensure the depth isn’t just in one discipline.”

Those world champions include Zoe Atkin (freestyle skiing), Charlotte Bankes (snowboard), Mia Brookes (snowboard), while Zak Carrick-Smith won double gold in the men’s combined and slalom events in Alpine skiing at the 2024 Winter Youth Olympics.

“When I first came in, it was like athletes were happy to be at the start line,” Gosling says of 2018. “I feel that mentality has changed whereby they expect to be at the start line, and, let’s face it, they also expect to have a chance of winning.”

“Having that (winning) experience and that exposure is great preparation for future Games because then you don’t get so overawed when you find yourself in that environment for the first time.”

Team GB have high hopes for Zoe Atkin in freestyle skiing. (Michael Reaves/Getty Images)

Carrick-Smith and Bankes are examples of how Team GB is tapping into its diaspora, too.

The former, along with his brother Freddy, was born in France, while Bankes moved to the southern Alps aged four. Nine of the 20 GB Snowsport athletes headed to Milan Cortina were born and/or raised abroad — growing up with better access to snow and in areas where snowsports were part of the culture.

This extends to staff, Gosling explains: “Ensuring that we’ve got world-class coaches, and they tend to be international. We’ve got a couple of British coaches, who are exceptional, but we’ve also got coaches from France, Canada, Norway, so we need to focus there.”

GB Snowsport launched a six-year strategic plan in 2024 to guide development on and off the pistes. That includes 12-month goals and ambitions towards the 2030 Winter Games in the French Alps.

They rebranded from British Ski and Snowboard at the end of 2018, having previously had separate organisations for Winter Olympic and Paralympic disciplines. Gosling wanted to “get rid of the different silos and entities” and challenge conventional wisdom a bit.

“Originally, there was a lot of pushback and everyone was like, ‘Well, what’s an Alpine skier got in common with a snowboarder?’ Then you’ve got the Paralympic disciplines too. But the reality is that the one thing you have in common is snow, right? And the fact you like competing on it.

“Ultimately, the other piece they’ve got in common is being an underdog in this environment up against the big nations.”

All of that is about having “a really clear vision and mission. It’s all about quality, not quantity for GB snowsports,” for Gosling, who is leading GB in its aims to be a top-five snowsports nation by the next Games in 2030.

She believes that GB must not resign itself to its environmental constraints.

“What we do have is snow domes and dry slopes, which are all great training grounds to then build the talent pipeline. That’s how Kirsty Muir (freestyle skier), Dave Ryding (Alpine ski racer), Brookes (snowboard) all started in the UK.

“We gave them the opportunity to attend the Grom camps (training camps), to test out some of these tricks and the jumps, and to learn and build their confidence from age six.”

Success, ultimately, should create a virtuous cycle. One example of this is Eve Muirhead, the four-time Olympic curler who was only 23 when she led GB to bronze at the 2014 Games in Sochi, the youngest-ever skip to make a podium. In Beijing, eight years later, Muirhead guided the team to gold for the first time in two decades.

Now she is Chef de Mission for these Winter Games.

“We have to ensure that we’re putting the handrails to guide people into that space once they’ve decided it’s time to retire,” Gosling says.

While Muirhead, as a curler, is not an athlete for whom Gosling (snowsports) has been responsible, she understands the importance of keeping top athletes around for the next generation.

Dr Kate Baker, UK Sport’s Director of Performance and People, described Team GB as the “strongest we’ve ever been” at the pre-Olympics media briefing.

This most recent Olympic cycle has seen almost three times as many world championship medals as they had going into Beijing — partially owing to the pandemic but mostly, Team GB feel, being a reflection of having more and better athletes.

One word that Gosling and Team GB staff repeat is “jeopardy”. They know that, while the past four years of work and success mean their medal ambitions are justified, the margin for error in winter sports is zero.

Now there is a British tendency to be slightly defeatist. Dr Baker said Team GB did not want to “overgild the lily” on expectations. They can dare to dream, though.

“It’s the first time in 12 years that we’ve got a Winter Olympics in the same time zone,” Gosling says. “For us, it is a bit more like a home away from home Games.”