Why is the U.K. so crappy at winter sports?

Granted, they can't look out their back windows and see the Alps, but c'mon! Does it never snow in Scotland? Doesn't anyone participate in cross-country, biathalon, snowboarding, speed skating et al or are they just really BAD at it? I guess curling is all they've got. Pathetic.

loved him? What was this, the 1988 games? After that, you actually had to have proven you could jump before a country just decided to send you.

88 Olympics

Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_%22The_Eagle%22_Edwards

Edwards finished last in both the 70m and 90m events. From the beginning, though, his legend was embroidered with falsehoods.

However, his lack of success endeared him to people all across the globe. The worse he did, the more popular he became. He subsequently became a media celebrity and appeared on talk shows around the world, appearing on The Tonight Show during the Games. The press nicknamed him "Mr. Magoo", and one Italian journalist called him a "ski dropper"

The widespread attention that Edwards received in Calgary turned into a large embarrassment for the ski jumping establishment. Many athletes and officials felt that he was "making a mockery" of the sport. Shortly after the Olympics finished, the entry requirements were greatly toughened, making it next to impossible for anyone to follow his example.

At the closing ceremony, the president of the Organising Committee, Frank King, seemed to single out Edwards for his contribution: "At this Games, some competitors have won gold, some have broken records, and some of you have even soared like an eagle." At that moment, 100,000 people in the stadium roared "Eddie! Eddie!". It was the first time in the history of the games that an individual athlete had been mentioned in the closing speech.

I think it's an accomplishment when you don't kill yourself trying those jumps!

after a silver in it in the games before, and a bronze in the games before that. So, no, curling is not all we've got. We had the women's world champion 2-woman bobsled last year (they crashed in Whistler).

No, no-one does biathalon - it's a bizarre 'sport' based on being a Russian border guard. Cross-country skiing really isn't practical in the UK - there isn't enough snow in the vast majority of the country. There are a few hills in Scotland that have ski runs on; but they're not a great place to get really good, because they only get a decent amount of snow when the weather is so bad (ie wind) that you often have to close lifts. Any British skier who wants to get to world class does have to live in the Alps, and so finance does become a problem. You don't get to grow up near decent ski-runs, so you're always trying to catch up athletes who did.

We have a few speed-skaters - one won the short-track competitions in Calgary 20 years ago, but it was just a demonstration sport then: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilf_O'Reilly . But very few people do speed-skating. Not sure exactly why (nowhere suitable to do it regularly outdoors, but I think that applies to many countries). No-one got keen enough to build the rinks.

:sarcasm:

The French must be laughing.

Table: Rank/Country/Gold/Silver/Bronze/Total

1
United States
9
14
13
36

2
Germany
10
12
7
29

3
Canada
13
7
5
25

4
Norway
8
8
6
22

5
Austria
4
6
6
16

6
Russian Federation
3
5
7
15

7
Korea
6
6
2
14

8
China
5
2
4
11

8
France
2
3
6
11

10
Sweden
5
2
3
10

11
Switzerland
6
0
3
9

12
Netherlands
4
1
3
8

13
Czech Republic
2
0
4
6

13
Poland
1
3
2
6

15
Italy
1
1
3
5

15
Japan
0
3
2
5

15
Finland
0
1
4
5

18
Australia
2
1
0
3

18
Belarus
1
1
1
3

18
Slovakia
1
1
1
3

18
Croatia
0
2
1
3

18
Slovenia
0
2
1
3

23
Latvia
0
2
0
2

24
Great Britain
1
0
0
1

24
Estonia
0
1
0
1

24
Kazakhstan
0
1
0
1

In the rinks I worked hockey players usually got the ice first, and early ice means good ice.

I tell you though, watching those figure skaters was something else. I saw a lot that never made the Olympics that were amazing. Hockey takes strong, powerful skating, and that can't be underestimated, but figure skating was really amazing stuff. Some guys would bust on the men, but it was like meeting ballet dancers....they had legs like Conan! They could have out skated us hockey guys any day...they just didn't just didn't like taking the hits like we did, and blood on the ice was like an X-rated movie, while it made us hockey guys laugh. :)