Winter Olympic Standard Harder To Reach Than People Realise, Says Olympian
Midway through Milano‑Cortina 2026, Team GB sit 12th on the medal table with three golds. With Bruce Mouat’s curlers starting strongly and further events still to come, more medal pushes remain in play – but the competitiveness of these Games underlines how tough it really is to turn promise into podiums.
And while the UK loves a plucky underdog (hello, Eddie the Eagle), fresh research suggests we may be a touch over‑confident in our abilities while watching from the sofa; 65% of Brits say curling would be easy to pick up, and one in three (33%) believe four years’ training would be enough to qualify for Team GB in a Winter Olympic sport.
To explore the gap between public confidence and the reality of elite sports, ski-travel experts Erna Low surveyed 2,000 UK adults and then asked two‑time Freestyle Skiing Olympian Lloyd Wallace to respond, drawing on his experience of living and training alongside athletes from every winter discipline at PyeongChang 2018 and Beijing 2022 to offer a behind‑the‑scenes view of what it really takes to reach the Games.
Lloyd Wallace
Curling – The “Looks Easy on TV” Myth
Out of all winter sports, Brits are most confident about curling, with nearly two thirds (65%) saying it would be easy or of moderate difficulty to pick up. But that TV‑friendly pace is deceptive because at elite level strength, precision and tactical load are uncompromising.
“Curling isn’t a pub sport,” says Wallace. “The stones are solid granite and weigh around 20 kilograms. At the highest level you have to be pinpoint accurate every single time over two straight weeks of matches.”
What Britain Thinks is Hardest
| Rank | Sport | % of Brits that think it’d be Hard or Impossible |
| 1 | Ski jumping | 75% |
| 2 | Skeleton | 73% |
| 3 | Skiing slalom | 71% |
| 4 | Speed skating | 70% |
| 5 | Freestyle snowboarding | 69% |
| 6 | Figure skating | 69% |
| 7 | Freestyle skiing | 68% |
| 8 | Luge | 67% |
| 9 | Biathlon | 66% |
| 10 | Bobsleigh | 65% |
Top 10 Hardest Winter Sports to Learn – Erna Low survey data
When asked which events look the toughest to learn, the public points to the high‑risk, high-skill end of the programme: ski jumping (75%), skeleton (73%) and slalom (71%) top the list.
The margins for error in these sports are tiny, and the consequences are immediate. One wrong edge or mistimed take‑off, and it’s game over.
“For most adults, ski jumping is pretty unattainable without years of staged progression,” says Wallace. “In skeleton, big corners hit you with fighter‑jet, F1‑like G‑forces… even holding your head position is a workout.”
What it really takes to reach Olympic level
A third of people (33%) believe four years of training would take them to elite level. Almost a quarter (23%) believe they would compete or medal. One in nine (11%) even say they would win. Yet 36% still admit they do not think they would finish an event after four years.
Commenting on his experience in Freestyle Skiing, Lloyd said: “A fit, motivated adult might land a controlled on‑snow flip by year four — but Olympic level typically takes at least eight years of dedicated training. Four years is a great start, it’s just not the finish line.”
He adds a pragmatic note: “After four years, I’d say you could make your way slowly down a slalom piste, and you could probably make your way around a cross‑country course fairly slowly.”
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