As a nation that is not particularly fervent when it comes to Winter Sports, most 
people can count the number of famous British Winter Olympians on one hand. Most will recall Robin Cousins, John Curry and perhaps Torville and Dean. Some may even recall the ladies Curling team, or even Lizzie Yarnold.
The most famous out of all British competitors is probably Eddie “the Eagle” Edwards, a ski-jumper who came dead last (by a quite considerable margin) in the Winter Olympics in Calgary in 1988, but who perhaps most famously showed true Olympian spirit by just competing.
So the British may not have a particular fondness for the Winter Games, especially compared to the Summer alternative, but there is no doubt that the blizzard of betting opportunities that will be available throughout the games, will certainly attract plenty of interest from punters the length and breadth of the country.
With that in mind, here’s our preview of the Winter Olympics from South Korea, complete with a list of some of our top tips for success, British medal hopefuls (with their odds) and some interesting other best you may wish to back during the event.
The 2018 Winter Olympics
The 2018 Games is the XXIII Olympic Winter Games and will take place in Pyeoungchang County in South Korea. This will be the first time the Winter Olympics has been held in South Korea, although Seoul did host the Summer games of 1988.
92 Nations are participating with the Great Britain and Northern Ireland team sending a delegation of 59 athletes to compete in the tournament. They will be amongst the thousands of athletes that attend the opening ceremony at the Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium on the 9th February.
The action actually gets underway however on the 8th February with Curling and Ski Jumping starting before the official opening of the games. Indeed, Curling will take place across every day of the tournament from the 8th through to the 25th.
102 Events across 15 different sports will be contested making it the first Winter Olympics to see over 100 Gold Medals awarded. The sports being contested are as follows:
- Alpine Skiing
- Biathlon
- Bobsleigh
- Cross-Country Skiing
- Curling
- Figure Skating
- Freestyle Skiing
- Ice Hockey
- Luge
- Nordic Combined
- Short Track Speed Skating
- Skeleton
- Ski Jumping
- Snowboarding
- Speed Skating.
The Closing ceremony will take place on the 25th February 2018 also at the Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium.
Who are Great Britain and Ireland’s Best Medal Hopes?
Elise Christie (Speed Skating)
Elise will compete in the 1,500m, 1,000m and 500m events at the Winter Olympics and after suffering two disqualifications and heartbreak in Sochi four years ago, the talented Christie will be hoping to turn her brilliant season’s form into at least one and possibly two medals in South Korea.
Her problem will be a passionate home support roaring on the South Korean athletes, for whom this is a national sport, and of course, the nature of the event is that one slip can be fatal to your hopes. However, Christie certainly has the talent to bring home at least one, maybe two and even possibly three medals from the Games.
Ellie is ranked an 11/4 second favourite with Coral to win the 500m Short Track event at the Winter Olympics kjust behind Min Jeong Choi who is the 2/1 favourite.
Lizzy Yarnold & Laura Dees (Skeleton)
Lizzy Yarnold is the defending Olympic Champion in this event and although she has endured a poor season by her own standards, she has the mentality of a true winner and she will be bang on her game to compete hard in defence of her title.
Although Yarnold is rated by many as Team GB and Northern Ireland’s best hope of a medal in this event, here team mate Laura Dees is also ranked sixth in the world at present and she has earned a place on the podium at a number of World Cup events over the past 12 months or so.
If Dees can capitalise on her naturally quick start and have a clean run and remains focused mentally, she could creep into the medal positions.
Katie Ormerod (Snowboarding)
Ormerod will be taking on two events in Snowboarding, the Slopestyle first (which is on the 11th and 12th February) and then the Big Air which has qualifying heats on the 19th February followed by the final on the 23rd February.
Over the past couple of years, Katie Ormerod has shown herself to be one of the best practitioners in both of these events, having won the World Cup Big Air event and also she was on the podium of the Winter Olympics test event in Sochi four years ago. Additionally, she also pocketed bronze in the slopestyle event at the X-Games.
The British Olympic Committee have targeted two medals from the snow sports for Pyeongchang 2018 and it could well be that Katie Ormerod is our best hope at bringing home both of those.
Betting on the Snowboarding events at Pyeongchang should be available with Coral nearer the time of the event.
Men’s & Women’s Curling Teams
Few teams will face quite as an intense competition at the Winter Olympics this year than the Curling teams. There will be matches on every day of the tournament, starting the day before the Opening Ceremony and finishing on the day of the Closing ceremony and both the all-Scottish men’s and women’s teams have high hopes of bringing home a medal apiece.
The women’s team are arguably the best chance of success having won Gold back in 2002 and also achieving a silver medal in 2014, when the team was skippered then, as it is now, by Eve Muirhead. As well as that bronze medal, she has also earned a gold medal at the World Championships in Riga in 2013 as well as a bronze medal in the same tournament in Beijing in 2017.
Anna Sloan, Vicki Adams and Lauren Gray will complete the rest of the team chasing gold in Pyeongchang.
The men’s team isn’t perhaps as well-known as their female counterparts as they have not landed a gold medal, but they did earn a silver medal at the 2014 Winter Olympics with a different team.This is a new team of curlers however, but they did become the first men’s team ever to reach a Grand Slam final this past year which has hopes soaring of a good performance in Korea.
The team have won World Junior Championships in the past (back in 2013) and it is made up of Skip Kyle Smith, plus Thomas Muirhead, Kyle Waddell and Cammy Smith.
Coral are not currently offering odds on the men’s curling event, but you can back Great Britain’s female team at 3/1 to win the Gold Medal. They are the second favourites behind Canada (5/4) with Sweden a 7/2 shot.
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