Great Britain's Winter Olympics Hall of Fame - 11-15

WHO are the greatest British Winter Olympians of all time? Here's the case for a cast that includes a plasterer from Gloucester and an office clerk and copper from Nottingham, plus a Lord and an Earl.

STAR TURN: Cecilia Colledge's won world and European title but only managed a silver at the 1936 Olympic Winter Games in Garmisch-Partenkirchen

11. CECILIA COLLEDGE, GARMISCH-PARTENKIRCHEN 1936

Cecilia Colledge didn't win an Olympic gold but she changed her sport forever.

The first woman to ever land a double jump, her innovation laid the groundwork for those that followed.

She won the British title six times plus was twice-crowned European champion and won the world title in 1937.

At the 1932 Olympic Winter Games she finished eighth, aged just 11, while four years later, in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, she took silver behind Norway's Sonja Henie, a three-time champion.

Colledge drove an ambulance in London during the Blitz and returned to skating after World War II to win a sixth national title.

She was inducted into the World Skating Hall of Fame in 1980.

12. SHELLEY RUDMAN, TURIN 2006

Shelley Rudman arrived in Turin as no more than an outsider for a skeleton bob medal but a series of impressive training runs marked her medal potential.

A promising athlete as a youngster, Rudman took up skeleton after attending a ‘have a go' push start session at the University of Bath.

She raised £4,000 to buy a sled for Turin, which was designed by boyfriend and world champion Kristian Bromley.

Despite never posting a World Cup podium, Rudman clearly took a liking to the super-fast track at Cesana-Pariol.

She was fourth after the first run but improved to take a surprise silver behind Switerland's Maya Pedersen, while Canada's Mellisa Hollingsworth-Richards took bronze.

Rudman is now back in full-time training and looking towards Vancouver 2010, after she gave birth to daughter Ella in October 2008.

13. GREAT BRITAIN FOUR-MAN BOBSLEIGH TEAM, NAGANO 1998

Sean Olsson piloted Britain to their first bobsleigh medal since Nash and Dixon's gold in Innsbruck 34 years earlier.

Alongside team-mates Dean Ward, Courtney Rumbolt and Paul Attwood, Olsson underlined his pre-Games talk with some attention-grabbing driving, especially a first run which ranked Britain in second.

But a disappointing second run, which only ranked Olsson tenth, let others come through with Christoph Langen piloting Germany to gold while Switzerland took silver and Britain dead-heated with France in third.

14. JAYNE TORVILL AND CHRISTOPHER DEAN, LILLEHAMMER 1994

When the International Olympic Committee and International Skating Union relaxed rules on professionals, Torvill and Dean announced their plans to return to Olympic competition.

Ten years away from competition looked to have no effect as they swept to a seventh British title with an innovative free-dance, set to the Irving Berlin tune ‘Let's Face the Music and Dance'.

Ten years before they had found ways around the ISU's rule book with their Bolero but judges marked down their routine, declaring an assisted lift was above the shoulders and therefore prohibited.

The public swooned in glee as the Fred and Ginger of the ice enjoyed ovation after ovation. But the routine only ranked them third - behind Russia's Oskana Grishuk and Evgeny Platov in gold and Maya Usova and Alexander Zhulin in silver.

15. ALAIN BAXTER, SALT LAKE CITY 2002

Alain Baxter made history when he secured Britain's first-ever skiing gold with a slalom bronze.

At the time the only controversy that surrounded the self-styled Highlander was his decision to dye his hair the colour of a Scottish Saltire.

Baxter returned to Aviemore in Scotland as a national hero but within days it was announced his post-race drugs test had shown traces of methamphetamine.

Baxter protested his innocence claiming the trace originated from a Vickers inhaler bought in the USA, while the same brand of inhaler, bought in the UK, would have produced a negative result.

The International Ski Federation was lenient, banning him for three months, which meant he missed no competitive races while the British Olympic Association didn't action their byelaw, which bans from Olympic competition those convicted of drugs offences, meaning he competed at the 2006 Games in Turin (see Sportsbeat's James Toney's coverage here).

Baxter later had his international ban overturned by the Court of Arbitration in Sport, thanks to an appeal in part funded by the BOA, although the IOC have stood firm in the issue of reinstating his medal.

Baxter had enjoyed some success before Salt Lake City with four top-ten World Cup finishes but his career since has not been close to hitting the heights of that giddy evening under floodlights at Deer Valley.

Do you agree with our views? Feel free to make your case for anyone omitted on our rankings.

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Great Britain's Winter Olympics Hall of Fame - 1-5

Great Britain's Winter Olympics Hall of Fame - 6-10

Great Britain's Winter Olympics Hall of Fame - 16-20

Great Britain's Winter Olympics Hall of Fame - 21-25

 

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JAMES TONEY