Great Britain at the 2014 Winter Paralympics

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland competed at the 2014 Winter Paralympics in Sochi, Russia, held between 7–16 of March 2014. The team was known by it shortened name of Great Britain, for identification purposes.

Great Britain at the
2014 Winter Paralympics
IPC codeGBR
NPCBritish Paralympic Association
Websitewww.paralympics.org.uk
in Sochi
Competitors15 in 2 sports
Flag bearers Millie Knight (Opening)
Jade Etherington (Closing)[1]
Medals
Ranked 10th
Gold
1
Silver
3
Bronze
2
Total
6
Winter Paralympics appearances (overview)

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.

Medallists

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Medals by date
Day Date       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       Total
Alpine skiing 1 3 1 5
Wheelchair curling 0 0 1 1
Total 1 3 2 6

Medal and performance targets

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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  N Target missed  Y Target met
Sport Medal target set Non medal target Results Performance relative to target range
Alpine skiing 2–5  — 5 medals
     
 Y
Wheelchair curling 0–1 Top four    Y
Total 2–6  — 6 medals  Y
Total gold  —  — 1  —

UK Sport funding

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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

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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

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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 1:34.28 +2.73  
Super-G 1:29.76 +1.04  
Super combined 1:01.80 +3.12 2 1:26.58 1 2:28.38 +0.63  
Slalom 1:00.87 1 1:01.02 +1.20 3 2:01.89 +0.65  
Giant slalom DNS Did not advance
Kelly Gallagher
Guide: Charlotte Evans
Visually impaired Downhill 1:37.36 +5.81 6
Super-G 1:28.72  
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 DNF
Super-G 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
Athlete Classification Event Run 1 Run 2 Final/Total
Time Diff Rank Time Diff Rank Time Diff Rank
Mick Brennan Sitting Super-G 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

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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

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Standings

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Final round robin standings
Team Skip Pld W L PF PA Qualification
  Russia Andrei Smirnov 9 8 1 60 38 Playoffs
  Canada Jim Armstrong 9 7 2 66 42
  China Wang Haitao 9 5 4 54 45
  Great Britain Aileen Neilson 9 5 4 53 56
  United States Patrick McDonald 9 4 5 56 52
  Slovakia Radoslav Ďuriš 9 4 5 47 68
  Sweden Jalle Jungnell 9 4 5 59 49
  Norway Rune Lorentsen 9 3 6 47 62
  South Korea Kim Myung-jin 9 3 6 41 74
  Finland Markku Karjalainen 9 2 7 61 58
Source: [5]

Results

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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

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Semifinal
Team 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
Team 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

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References

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  1. ^ "Etherington named as ParalympicsGB Flag-bearer in Recognition of Medal Success". Archived from the original on 2014-03-16. Retrieved 2014-03-16.
  2. ^ "UK Sport confirms medal targets for Sochi 2014".
  3. ^ a b c "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.
  5. ^ Round robin standings
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