Congratulations to Bristolian Jenny Jones, resplendent in her team GB gear for outdoors, as she becomes the first Briton to pick up a medal on the snow at the Winter Olympics in Sochi. Holding the lead after her second run with scoring 87.25 she had an agonising wait as there were still ten athletes to follow her down.

22 medals had been won previously in events including curling, bobsleigh and figure skating, and even in the dim and distant past ice hockey, but all of these had been won on ice and not snow. Alan Baxter from Scotland finished third in the men’s slalom in 2020 but his bronze medal was taken away in very controversial circumstances after a failed drugs test, which later led to a rule change.

This completes an amazing journey for Jones who has won gold medals at world level for this event previously but won has also worked in a cardboard factory, a doughnut shop and as a chalet maid in order to fund her snowboarding career. She was watched by her very proud parents who had flown out to watch without telling her. She had suffered a concussion in December last year and had been thinking about her future in the sport just before the Slopstyle vent was accepted as an Olympic event in 2012, but all that is behind her as she made history out in the snow.

Fellow sportsmen and women were even following her exploits with comments on twitter, the best being one from Wimbledon Champion Andy Murray “Jenny Jones! Is it wrong to hope everyone left falls?” Not exactly sporting but he got his wish as the final competitor down Austrian medal prospect Anna Gasser did fall (but she is OK) and the medal was confirmed

So let’s hope this is start of lots of medals for Team GB and with them all wearing the best gear for outdoors they are able to perform to their best ability. Good Luck to all of them.