THE problem with snow is the mess it leaves behind when it melts and these Winter Olympics certainly ended on a distinctly sludgy note. They had promised so much but in the end, barring any miracles at Sestriere or Palavela last night, they'll end with the overwhelming feeling of disappointment.
Simon Clegg, the British Olympic Association's chief executive, will sit down at noon today and deliver his post-Games verdict on the performance of his team, and he is likely to declare "mission accomplished". He cautiously predicted one medal of an
y colour, and that's what he got.
Britain's winter Olympic athletes have received £2.2m in World Class Performance funding in the past four years - and the return of a solitary silver looks a little stingy. However, compare that to the £70m summer sport received to prepare for Athens in 2004. Britain claimed 30 medals there at an average of £2.3m per podium place.
These stats tell a story but it's like comparing oranges and lemons or figure skating with snowboard cross. Britain has a natural pedigree in many summer sports but has to fight harder to make an impact on the ice or in the snow.
Shelley Rudman's surprise skeleton silver - she'd never placed in the top three of any world-level race before - was the high point of these Games for Clegg. Unfortunately, it didn't have much competition. Livingston's Sinead and John Kerr underlined their growing reputation with a sparkling free dance and top ten finish and little more could have been asked of them at their first Games. The jury will not be quite so forgiving in Vancouver, where they should travel as Britain's best chance of a figure skating medal since Torvill and Dean.
Chemmy Alcott proved she is more than just a pretty face with her 11th place in the women's downhill - the best result by a British woman skier since Gina Hathorn's slalom fourth in 1968 - while Noel Baxter also had a career best 14th in the alpine combined. However, that's, er, it.
Rhona Martin was unable to repeat her gold medal performance of Salt Lake city and failed even to guide her team to the semi-finals. In truth, Martin and her team-mates were always fighting a difficult battle, due to a bizarre selection procedure that brought them together just six weeks before the Games. Surely in a sport where teamwork is such a critical factor, players need more time to prepare for the biggest tournament of their lives, and all the bluster from the powers that be won't disguise that.
No-one was more disappointed with the men's curling team's fourth place than skip David Murdoch - a more honest and self-effacing sportsman you couldn't wish to meet. Murdoch is just 27 and will be back, but the hard truth is he failed to match or improve on the silver medal he won at last year's World Championships.
Finlay Mickel is another for the future but skiing at the Olympics is such a lottery and the speed of his development is best judged by looking at World Cup results, a much more encouraging statistic. Franz Klammer knows a thing or two about downhill racers and he likes what he sees in Mickel, who should be in his prime in Vancouver. "I think that Finlay has the potential to be consistent in the top ten and also in the running for medals in the future," he said.
Nicola Minichiello and Jackie Davies came second in last year's World Bobsleigh Championships but were only ninth this week and Kristan Bromley failed to match his girlfriend or world ranking in the men's skeleton.
There are few Olympians I feel more sorry for than Bromley. British skeleton racing has thrived thanks to the time and energy he spends on sled designs. He has now seen Alex Coomber and Rudman both claim Olympic medals thanks to his vision but he has nothing to show for it but their grateful thanks.
And then there was Lesley McKenna. Funded, to use a snowboarding term, to the max, she was also well sponsored by a clutch of top brands. However, she twice ended up with her face in the snow and finished dead flat last in the women's half-pipe. She was not, in the vernacular of her chosen sport, stoked.
As ever, the spectre of drugs hung over proceedings, although ten Austrian cross-country skiers and biathletes, whose rooms were raided by Italian police, were found not guilty of any doping offence in a saga that dragged on for days.
Silver medallist Olga Pyleva was expelled after testing positive for Carphedon and analysis of suspicious equipment, found in the Austrian ski team's mountain accommodation, was still being carried out by the Polizia di Carbinieri last night.
When will these Olympians learn that drugs, in the words of the Olympic motto, will make you stronger and faster but also, unfortunately, higher.
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The full article contains 859 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
