GB ones to watch

Rudman: aiming to upgrade Turin silver

Team GB does not have the best record in the Winter Olympics but they head to Canada hopeful of bringing home a medal or two.

Chris Hammer looks at those most likely to return with gold, silver or bronze.

Shelley Rudman, skeleton

Rudman was Great Britain's only medallist at the 2006 Winter Olympics when claiming skeleton silver and now she's firing on all cylinders in her quest to go one better in Vancouver. Having taken a break from the sport in the 2007/08 season to give birth to daughter Ella Marie, the 28-year-old has since bounced back in impressive fashion over the last two years to cement herself firmly in the world's top three. In 2009, Rudman won gold at the European Championships in St Moritz on route to an overall second place in the World Cup standings and her fine form has continued right through the build up to February's big race on the Olympic track at Whistler. This season the Sheffield-based star, who first got into skeleton after watching fellow Brit Alex Coomber snatch bronze at the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City, has finished on the podium in four of the eight World Cup races - including two victories at Cesana and St Moritz - while the bronze she won at the recent European Championships ensured another silver in the overall standings behind Canada's Mellisa Hollingsworth. Interestingly Rudman pipped Hollingsworth to the silver medal in Turin and if she manages to get the better of her Canadian rival once more then a gold must surely be on the cards.

David Murdoch, curling

David Murdoch has the honour of skippering Great Britain's men's curling team for the second successive Olympics but he will head to Vancouver under more pressure than most to clinch a gold medal. Team GB are rarely considered one of the leading favourites to win any event at a Winter Games but Murdoch has the weight of expectation upon his shoulders as he bids to emulate the exploits of Rhona Martin, who guided her all-Scottish female quartet to victory at Salt Lake City in 2002. Four years ago in Turin, Murdoch was agonisingly denied a bronze when being edged out by the USA in a tense third/fourth play-off match but since then he's guided the team to World Championship glory in 2006 and 2009, defeating Canada in the final on both occasions. Of course, the host nation will once again be the team to beat and there's no doubt Canadian skip Kevin Martin, who won bronze in 2002 but was not part of the team that struck gold in Turin, will be out for revenge over Murdoch on the biggest stage of all. However, Murdoch surely has the mental edge over Martin having beaten him three times in a row at the 2009 World Championships in Canada, while in the last meeting between the sides in January, the Scots clinched yet another win on route to a tournament victory in Ontario. The 31-year-old from Lockerbie - also European champion in 2007 and 2008 - has hit form at the right time and must be fancied to banish the memories of Turin.

Nicola Minichiello, bobsleigh

Minichiello and her brakewoman Gillian Cooke became Great Britain's first female world bobsleigh champions in Lake Placid last year, sparking genuine hopes of a potential Olympic gold at the 2010 Games. However, an eye injury for the Sheffield driver recently put her participation in jeopardy. Minichiello, who has competed in two previous Games, was diagnosed with retinitis just six days before Christmas when tests taken in Germany revealed she had lost 80 per cent of her sight in her left eye - obviously a severe problem when planning to steer a bobsleigh at high speeds down any ice chute, let alone Whistler's devilishly-quick track in Vancouver. However, the determined 31-year-old refused to give up on her dream and following surgery on the condition, she managed to guide the British duo to steady seventh and eighth-place finishes in two of January's World Cup events, while they boosted their confidence further with victory in a European Cup meeting at St Moritz. Minichiello needed more laser surgery to remove fluid from the troublesome left eye at the end of last month but thankfully has now been given a clean bill of health to compete in Vancouver, where she will be going all out for a medal. The former heptathlete finished ninth in Turin four years ago but that was without the presence of Cooke, who has previously represented her country in the pole vault and long jump at the 2002 and 2006 Commonwealth Games. The pair were only united as a team after Cooke replied to an advert from Minichiello on Facebook.

Jonathan Eley, short-track speed skating

Eley will be looking to follow in the footsteps of Great Britain's most successful short-track speed skating duo Wilf O'Reilly and Nicky Gooch when he steps out onto the ice in Vancouver. O'Reilly won both the 500m and 1000m at the 1988 Olympics in Calgary when the event was classed as a demonstration sport, while at the Lillehammer Games in 1994 Gooch's bronze was Great Britain's first official Olympic speed skating medal. In fact to this day, nobody has matched Gooch's achievement but Eley will truly fancy his chances of a podium place having finished a highly-creditable fifth in the 500m at his debut Olympics in Turin four years ago when aged just 21. Older, wiser and more experienced at top level competition, Eley heads to Vancouver boasting a silver medal in the 500m at the recent European Championships in Dresden, although this perhaps wasn't the reward he was aiming at having taken gold two years previously. At 6ft 2in, Eley is taller than a typical short-track speed skater but he continues to prove this is no disadvantage, ending 2009 ranked number three in the world in his specialised 500m event following a string of encouraging results, including two silvers at World Cup meetings. An individual medal is certainly on the cards for the Solihull-born skater, who is coached by Gooch, while he'll also spearhead the hopes of the men's relay team - also including Anthony Douglas, Jack Whelbourne and Tom Iveson - which took a bronze medal home from Dresden.

Sinead and John Kerr, figure skating

Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean's golden performance to Bolero in 1984 may well be etched in the annals of sporting time but now it could be the turn of another British ice dance partnership to make a big impact on the Olympic scene. The Scottish brother and sister pairing are undoubtedly TeamGB's best chance of a figure-skating medal at the Vancouver Games and if they do manage to prevail, it will be the nation's first in the event since 1994 when Torvill and Dean were forced to settle with a bronze in their comeback, 10 years on from glory in Sarajevo. The Kerrs, British champions for the past six years, finished 10th in their first Olympics in Turin and since then have steadily risen up the world ladder thanks largely to a boost in funding that has allowed them to train in America and be coached by Evgeny Platov - one half of the Russian double act that took gold in 1994 and 1998. Although the Broxburn dancers could only finish fifth at the 2010 European Figure Skating Championships in Tallinn, they did win bronze last year in Helsinki before going on to qualify for the World Cup Grand Prix Final for the first time in Japan, where they claimed fourth spot. Interestingly Platov feels that as siblings the Kerrs aren't really 'allowed' to do the typically romantic routines but on the flip side this gives them the opportunity to be more original and their free dance programme to the music of Krwling by Linkin Park this season has certainly received a great reaction from the crowds. Their choreography and presentation is right up there with the very best but they'll need to avoid the technical errors which cost them in Tallinn if they are to make the podium in Vancouver.