They were the current world champions and had beaten Canada on the four occasions they had met before the Games began, giving David Murdoch's men what was thought to be a key psychological edge over their major rivals for the title.

But Britain didn't even make the gold medal showdown at Vancouver Olympic Centre. Their hopes and dreams came crashing down around them when they failed to make it to the semi-finals after a galling 7-6 play-off defeat by European champions Sweden.

Murdoch, Euan Byers, Pete Smith and Ewan MacDonald were crestfallen - the only word they could summon to explain their feelings was "heart-breaking" - and there will now be an inquest into why they performed so poorly when so much was expected of them.

Murdoch's team were among the favourites to win gold

The men should have breezed - like Canada - through the round robin stage. Instead, they managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory against Switzerland and blew chances to win against Norway in their final group match as well as the play-off against Sweden.

A downcast Rhona Martin, the gold-medal winning skip for Britain's women in 2002, was bemused by the men's failure.

"The women played to their rank and needed to raise it a few percentage points to get among the medal contenders but the men are the current world champions and knew what level was expected of them," she told me. "They played to their potential in some matches, like against Canada, but in others really lacked the intensity.

"There were points of brilliance in matches from individual players, but it wasn't pieced together enough. The performance just wasn't there on the ice for some reason. David has won two world titles, so what is the difference between a Winter Olympics and a World Championships? You're playing the same people in the same environment. I can't figure it out."

It is the second time Murdoch, Byers and MacDonald have suffered Olympic agony after losing to America in the bronze play-off match in Turin four years ago.

After those Games, UK Sport trebled the funding given to curling in the four-year cycle to Vancouver to £1.136m. There was also significant financial support provided by Sportscotland and the Scottish Institute of Sport.

Such funding enabled Murdoch and Byers to become full-time athletes, able to train for six days a week for the last two years, while the rest of the squad members were also able to solely focus on the Winter Olympics from the summer of 2009.

There was a whole host of support staff, too, to make sure Britain were properly prepared, including physiotherapists, psychologists, analysts, and strength and conditioning coaches, all overseen by performance director Derek Brown.

"The funding, the preparation and build-up was spot on," added GB men's curling coach David Hay. "We can't fault any part of it."

So was it the team dynamics then? The men have been playing together for years, while the women had more than a year to prepare. Yet it looked as though there were times when Jackie Lockhart, a former world championship-winning skip competing in her fourth Winter Olympics, was ignoring calls made by skip Muirhead, 25 years her junior.

You sensed it wasn't always rosy in the men's camp either, with the microphones inside the arena picking up niggly comments here and there.

Muirhead would not reveal how well her team had gelled but admitted: "You're not going to be best buddies all of the time but you have to get on and work as a unit. You have to trust your team-mates."

Maybe GB's failings simply were down to bad luck - a few inches here and there.

"In our game against Switzerland, had one shot curled another inch then we would have been in the semi-final," said Murdoch. "And against Sweden in the 10th end, we over-swept my last shot. If it had curled another inch, I would have been standing here with a smile on my face."

But it wasn't to be and Martin shared in the huge disappointment.

"I had high hopes for both teams, believing they both could have won a medal," she stated. "It is gut-wrenching neither of them has made the semi final stages."

He then spectacularly fell out with the US ski team, who got fed up with his antics, and formed his own Team America to carry on competing on the World Cup stage.

Just six months ago, he was seriously considering retiring from the sport, preferring to play golf, hang out at the beach and play with his toddler daughter Neesyn Dacey.

But then came the announcement before the season started in October. He was back in the US Ski Team fold and wanted another crack at winning an elusive Olympic gold.

And in true Miller style, he has gone from zero to hero at these Games, finally delivering his life's dream of an Olympic title in the men's combined, to prove he is the ultimate ski all-rounder.

Which is quite a statement from him considering he almost turned his back on the sport he had grown to hate.

But, for whatever reason, he has fallen back in love with it, and racing is a joy again for the 32-year-old who is rightly one of the best ski racers in history, his name equal among the greats of Jean Claude Killy, Franz Klammer, Pirmin Zurbriggen and Hermann Maier.

Miller's medal tally is truly remarkable - five Olympic medals so far (one gold, three silvers and a bronze), plus four World Championship golds and World Cup titles to boot.

With Olympic gold, Miller has finally fulfilled the potential which marked him as a star from an early age

But as former British skier and now Ski Sunday presenter Graham Bell told me: "It's not about the pots on the shelf for Bode.

"He's not a percentage man like Benni Raich, who will ski conservatively to make sure he gets down and gets a medal.

"Bode's not interested in that. The motivation for Bode is pushing the boundaries, skiing as fast as possible, even if it's risky."

Miller started skiing at the age of three and by 10 was racing, although he liked to snowboard, too.

His do-or-die attitude is loved by ski fans, especially in Austria where he has a huge fan base, but sometimes belies a determined man who has revolutionised ski competition - from his style of racing to the ski technology used (he brought in hourglass skis).

And it's a remarkable change of Olympic fortunes after his miserable Turin experience.

After winning the downhill and super-G at the 2005 World Championships in Bormio, Miller was the hot favourite - probably unrealistically - to sweep the board at the 2006 Games.

But he blew his medal chances in the downhill and giant slalom, did not finish either the super-G and slalom, and was disqualified from the combined.

His night-time activities were coming to the fore, and he enraged the already annoyed US media by hopping over security fences to escape being interviewed by them.

But that sorry saga has now been forgotten, and in Whistler he declared: "The level I skied today is right at the very, very top.

"You can't get that just on call - it's not like you turn a key and magically ski your absolute best - but when you are at the Olympics, with the energy and everything else, you can use that to bring your game up.

"There is a huge element of luck involved but it feels absolutely amazing."

Former British slalom skier Alain Baxter felt Miller's late decision to race this season had actually benefitted him.

"Bode has peaked just at the right time and with his head in the right place, he has been amazing to watch," said the Scot.

But what will Miller do next? He hasn't yet decided whether he will carry on racing or not.

"Bode is a loose cannon and impossible to coach," said Bell. "He will always do his own thing. He comes across as a laid back dude, but Bode is always in control.

"Sometimes he will blank me for an interview at the end of a race but then bore me for an hour in the bar later, talking in great detail about what had happened. But that's Bode for you, you never know what you're going to get."

Whatever similies and metaphors you choose to describe ski cross it arrived at the Winter Olympics with a big bang at a melting Cypress Mountain.

It was making its debut at the 2010 Games in Vancouver, four years after its snowboarding counterpart, and it certainly didn't disappoint.

For the record, Switzerland's Michael Schmid will go down in history as the first Olympic ski cross champion, Austria's Andreas Matt and Norway's Audun Groenvold the silver and bronze medallists respectively, but there were plenty of thrills and spills along the way.

The racers are a mixture of former alpine skiers and pure freestylers, but one thing is for sure - they have a fearless attitude to battle against each other at that speed.

After a timed qualification run ended with only one casualty, Czech Zdenek Safar, the 32 competitors were divided into eight heats of four racers. And that's when the madcap fun began as the crowd got pumped for the action with real rock tunes from Nirvana, Led Zeppelin and Metallica. There was no room for soft pop music here.

And the cheers and cow bells were ringing loud In the first heat as American alpine veteran Daron Rahlves, who switched to ski cross after the 2006 Winter Olympics, took on Schmid, the season's World Cup leader, France's Ted Piccard and Sweden's Eric Iljans down the 1,144m course in little over a minute.

Rahlves was on contention until he collided with Piccard on the penultimate jump, sending Schmid and Iljans through to the quarter-finals.

There was more carnage in the second heat - to gasps and whoops from the bloodthirsty crowd - as Anders Rekdal and Simon Stickl came to grief.

Rahlves, who was racing despite suffering a hip dislocation - the fourth of his career - at the recent X Games, continued to watch the racers fly down as he chatted to the media.

He was frustrated not to go through as he was desperate for an Olympic medal - the only thing missing from an illustrious alpine and now freestyle career.

"I was determined to race in the Olympics," Rahlves told me afterwards. "But I'm disappointed with the outcome."

It wasn't to be for his American team-mate Casey Puckett either. Puckett, in his fifth Olympics after also turning his back on alpine skiing, suffered the same fate.

Puckett bemoaned the soft spring-like snow that was slowing the racers down and making it virtually impossible to overtake. He had a point. Once a racer got out ahead they were never beaten. The only jockeying for position was usually between the second- and third-placed racers, both vying for that all-important second qualification spot.

"If you weren't out in front, you had to rely on a mistake from one of the others which was a shame," he said.

Hopes were high for a host nation medal as Chris Delbosco had won X Games gold earlier in the year. He used to be a member of the US alpine ski team but was dismissed for smoking marijuana. He turned to ski cross and used his dual-citizenship to represent Canada.

Delbosco sailed through to the final, winning all of his heats, but he came a cropper in the medal race, ironically after he had succeeded in a rare overtaking manoeuvre.

The 4,300-strong crowd had been cheering him on wildly as he looked nailed on for a bronze, only to fall on the penultimate jump, where most of the racers had found trouble. Cue a huge communal groan.

Bronze medallist Groenvold explained how difficult the course had been by saying the final obstacle "was like jumping out of a second-floor window".

And he summed up the unpredictably of the sport perfectly.

"I was thinking 'it isn't over until you cross the finish line,'" he said. "Unfortunately he (Delbosco) made a big mistake which gave me a good chance to pass. When you see someone crash like that, it's a mixed feeling. That's how the sport is."

Welcome to the madcap world that is ski cross.

Two of the game's heavyweights slugged it out at Vancouver Olympic Centre in front of 6,000 passionate fans - almost all Canadian - and they weren't disappointed by what they saw.

It was an absorbing match which swung one way then the other but ultimately Canada came out on top - 7-6 to be precise - to remain unbeaten in the Olympic tournament, with six wins out of six.

Great Britain, the current world champions, were left in a precarious position with three wins and three defeats and realistically need to win their final three round robin games, against the USA, Germany and Norway to advance to the semi-finals.

Curling is huge in Canada with more than one million people regularly playing it and it is shown on prime time television. They want the Olympic golds in curling and ice hockey. Anything less will seem like a disaster.

And although Canada have got off to a 100% start, all the chat before the match was on British skip David Murdoch's record against Canadian counterpart Kevin Martin. Murdoch had beaten him the last four times they had played and many believed he had the psychological edge over him.

Martin had bristled before the Olympic tournament began when he was questioned about Murdoch and the Canadian press did not take too kindly to claims Martin has lost his bottle on a couple of the big occasions - the 2002 Olympic final and the world championships last year.

So there was a lot of importance placed on the match. After the traditional Scottish pipers had led the teams out, Canada were the first to get on the scoresheet when they took two in the second end and the local media were boasting Martin had only lost one match in 80 after taking such a lead.

But Great Britain came right back at them in the third with a three, and it could have so easily have been a four but Murdoch just missed out. Canada evened it up in fourth but at the break Britain was back in the lead at 4-3.

The crowd had been doing their best to boost Canada by cheering their good shots, while there was only ever a ripple of applause every time GB scored, with a handful of Union Flags and the odd Saltire on show, plus a rather bizarre homemade sign which said "Bend it like Beckham", probably the first time curling and David Beckham have been mentioned in the same sentence.

Another two names you would not necessarily put together are ice hockey great Wayne Gretzky and GB's gold medal curler Rhona Martin. Gretzky, a huge curling fan, was at the match and apparently wanted to meet Rhona, who was rather dumbstruck at the idea. But alas the two sporting greats did not have the chance as he was whisked away in the sixth end.

The match resumed and Canada scored two in the sixth to again take the lead but like a wasp that won't leave you alone, Murdoch stung them again by evening it back up and then took a 6-5 advantage with just two ends remaining.

The tension was cranked up to epic proportions as Martin was happy to blank the penultimate end to gamble on keeping the hammer - or the final stone - in the 10th.

The capacity crowd broke out into a rendition of their national anthem, then stomped their feet to the sound of Queen's We Will Rock You, while a row of male twentysomethings took their tops off to reveal G-O C-A-N-A-D-A on their bare chests.

Around 6000 passionate Canada fans were backing their team Photograph: AP

We were getting to fever pitch as a clearly agitated Murdoch took his two allowed time-outs in the 10th end, but Martin was the one who kept a cool head and Canada scored two to secure the victory.

The crowd went wild waving their flags and cheering as Britain's Ewan MacDonald shook his head in disappointment. Martin looked mightily relieved and admitted what a "ding-dong battle" it had been.

Ironically, it had been Britain's best performance of the 2010 Games and MacDonald said they could definitely take a lot of positives out of the match, as only a couple of small errors had allowed Canada to take the win.

Murdoch described the atmosphere as "electric" and said the team could barely hear each other speak, but he knows they cannot afford any more slip-ups. "It is still in our hands which is not a bad situation we just have our backs to the wall a little bit," he said.

Afterwards Rhona told me: "It was a fantastic game of curling, played to the highest standard, which could have gone either way. But it's certainly not over for GB."

So round one to Canada. But only time will tell if these two heavyweights do battle again.

So what would the story be at Cypress Mountain in 2010? Would Jacobellis redeem herself, would Canada be celebrating a second gold medal of the Games or would Britain sneak in with their first snowboard medal in Olympic history?

Well, it turned out to be a Canadian success story as local hero Maelle Ricker lived up to her pre-race favourite tag to seal gold in front of a huge partisan Canadian crowd at her hometown course, just a few miles away from her home in Squamish.

And after the first qualification run, Canadian hearts were in their mouths as both Ricker and the highly-rated Dominique Maltais both fluffed their opening run.

With the pressure on, Maltais crashed again and was out of the knockout stages but Ricker put down a solid second run to qualify third fastest, just behind Jacobellis, with Britain's Zoe Gillings eighth quickest.

The sport is fast and furious in itself but so are the rounds, and as soon as the riders finish one heat they are back up on the lifts and preparing to race again, which proves to a recreational skier like me just how fit and strong these competitors truly are.

Gillings cruised through the quarter-fiinal as did Ricker, Jacobellis and the young Norwegian Helene Olafsen, who had been riding faster than some of the men in training.

The expectation levels and noise were cranked up a few more notches as the semi-final start-gate fell, with Olafsen and Austria's Olivia Nobs the first two home and into the Olympic final.

Gillings finished third and missed out on the chance to challenge for a medal. In the B final, she barely got out of the start-gate before pulling up, needing medical treatment before heading down the mountain on the ski lift.

She told me afterwards she had hurt her knee in the semi-final and would not have been able to race in the final even if she had made it.

"I'm pretty happy with a top-eight finish. I was trying for a medal as I
always do, so I'm disappointed with that, but I definitely tried my best," she said.

"I'm just looking forward to the future now. I love the atmosphere at the Olympics so can't wait for the 2014 Games in Sochi to come around."

The 24-year-old from the Isle of Man had been cheered on by her family, including toddler nephew Zaden, and friends who had been kitted out in GB hats that Gillings had crocheted herself in the run-up to the Games.

Her mum, Jill, said: "To get into the semi-final was a fantastic result and it was lovely the amount of British support she had out here."

But back on the race course, and Jacobellis was taking on Ricker, and French duo Deborah Anthonioz and Nelly Moenne Loccoz in the second semi-final.

And there were gasps from the crowd as Jacobellis lost her balance as she challenged Ricker and crashed through a gate - her chance to put her Turin nightmare behind her gone.

The 24-year-old, who has dominated the sport over the last few years with World Championship and X Games golds, said afterwards: "When people think of snowboard cross they think of me, and that's a pretty good accomplishment.

"It's just unfortunate the rest of the world just sees this race and the one four years ago."

So, to the final and the stage was set for Ricker, who has been in outstanding form in the World Cup this season, winning three races so far, and determined to finish among the medals after placing fourth in Turin four years ago.

She blasted out of the start-gate and straight into a commanding lead which was never challenged.

With the noise from the crowd at deafening proportions, Ricker flew over the last
jump and sailed across the finish line with her arms raised for Canada's second gold.

There was no showboating, no drama, Ricker just pushed herself to the line and Olympic glory.

"I'm so overwhelmed, I can't believe it," the 31-year-old said.
"I was just thinking 'stay on your feet, absorb it and cross the line'."

Now that's how you win an Olympic gold, Lindsey.

But they cannot help but break into a smile when they are about to push off on the ice, the cheers and cow bells go silent and all of a sudden they can hear quite audibly, "Go, go, go. Love you mummy/daddy."

And that is their two-year-old daughter Ella shouting at the top of her voice. She is their biggest fan and has become an unofficial mascot of the team.

"It's really lovely when you hear her but then it's time to knuckle down and race," Bromley told me.

Rudman won Britain's only medal at the 2006 Winter Olympics - a silver - and it was a shock result as she had only taken up the sport after the Salt Lake City Games.

She then took a year out of the sport to have Ella, who arrived in October 2007.

Rudman wanted to continue on the World Cup circuit with fiance Bromley but she would only do this if it was manageable and when Ella was just two-months-old she travelled to New York with Rudman and grandmother Josie for a test run - and the tot took it all in her stride.

She is now a fully fledged member of the team and follows her parents around the circuit. Bromley's folks Raymond and Mavis - who are retired - take over the childcare duties while the sliders are training or racing.

"Ella can twist them around her little finger but Shelley and myself are more strict with her. We have to be as she needs a routine," said Bromley.

But she is also the couple's "stressball" and Bromley explained: "She is our light relief. We are able to get away from the sport which can be all encompassing. So it is great to have her around.

Little Ella is here at the Vancouver Games although she is not allowed to stay with her parents in the Olympic Village.

Instead she is in a rented house in Squamish, about an hour's drive away from Whistler Sliding Centre, with both sets of grandparents.

Bromley said:"It is tough not seeing a lot of her but we've got a job to do. She'll be seeing plenty of us afterwards and in the meantime the grandparents will be making a fuss of her."

Rudman and Bromley race on Thursday and Friday and have been testing the track, the same one used in luge, where Georgian Nodar Kumaritashvili died during training.

"It's a tragedy and I really feel sorry for his family. I was thinking about
it a bit, " said Rudman but added: "it's my job to get focused and work on sorting out my lines."

The couple both have good prospects of winning medals, although the lack of training runs they have been able to have in Whistler could put paid to that.

They have completed four out of the six training runs allowed and both seem off the podium pace.

But team-mate Amy Williams could be the top Brit finisher, on a track which suits her and has brought her success before. She finished second in a World Cup race in Whistler last season.

Williams said: "I needed a day like today (Tuesday) to give me a boost of confidence and now I feel very confident. I'm actually looking forward to going down this track now."

An Olympic medal is all that is missing from Bromley's collection - he has won world, European, and World Championship titles but would dearly love to stand on the podium in Vancouver.

"My whole season has been geared up for this and I'm here healthy and in form and will give it my best shot."

And there are no prizes for guessing who will be watching them and giving the loudest cheers.

Answer: Become an instant hit on YouTube.

And that's exactly what British bobsleigher Gillian Cooke did, although the "exposure" she gained when her race suit split showing her behind to all and sundry at a World Cup race in St Moritz, Switzerland, was more than she had bargained for.

After hundreds of thousands of hits, Cooke is getting used to the fact her bare bottom, with only a thong covering her modesty, has been seen all around the world.

"It has certainly raised the profile of our sport," she sportingly told me. "I knew straight away it had split but I had to carry on otherwise we would have forfeited the race and I wasn't prepared to do that. My bum was freezing by the time we got to the end of the run, though!"

Oh well, better for it to happen in St Moritz than in front of a global audience of billions watching the Games, I suppose.

And driver Nicola Minichiello confessed she had suggested Cooke wear a thong as she thought it would be "performance enhancing".

She certainly had a point as the world champions finished seventh - their best result of the season so far.

Minichello and Cooke are dreaming of gold in Canada

They are bubbling up nicely for the ultimate challenge at Whistler Sliding Centre on 23 and 24 February.

"It is all about being ready for the Olympic race," said Minichiello, whose recent eyesight problems have been well documented and she is undergoing more laser surgery this week.

"Last season we hadn't won a race until the world championships - and then we won gold."

She predicts there are five teams all vying for the podium but everything is being put in place for the British duo to "hit peak form in Vancouver".

They were talking at the official launch of the British Winter Olympic team and Adidas kit launch which was held at the spectacular Somerset House ice rink in London.

It was used as a stunning backdrop as the impressive building was transformed into a huge projector for a five minute display with the slogan "impossible is nothing" emblazoned in huge letters.

Not surprisingly the kit suppliers, keen to promote their Techfit powerweb gear, failed to mention Cooke's now infamous incident in their swanky video.

And with genuine medal hope athletes available to talk to the press it became a bit of a media scrum but it was good to see so many newspapers, television and radio (and not forgeting online) journalists dedicating space to sports which barely get a mention unless it's a Winter Olympic year.

The British Olympic Association also wanted to put a positive spin on the team announcement, which including all kinds of skiing and snowboarding as well as women's bobsleigh and luge.

A total of 43 British athletes have now been confirmed with just the skeleton and men's bobsleigh to come at the end of the week. In total, 52 athletes are set to represent Britain - the largest team sent to a Winter Games for 18 years.

The only real surprise for me was slalom specialist Noel Baxter not being picked for what would have been his third Winter Olympics.

I believe the current financial meltdown at Snowsport GB, which forced the men's training programme to be scrapped, has certainly had an effect here as Baxter's form has suffered.

There will also be no British representative in ski cross, which is making its Olympic debut at Cypress Mountain in Vancouver on 21 February. Even though Emily Sarsfield and Sarah Sauvey had satisfied the International Olympic Committee criteria, Snowsport GB's was tougher and both failed to convince they should be included which is a shame.

UK Sport, the funding body, is boldly predicting three medals but hasn't said in which events. My opinion, for what it's worth, is I believe we will win medals in skeleton, curling, bobsleigh and short-track speed skating, which if it does happen would equal the four-medal haul from the 1924 Games, Britain's best Winter Olympics performance to date.

I sincerely hope I'm proved correct - but as as Sir Clive Woodward, who is one of the deputy chef de missions for the BOA at the 2010 Games, says it is all about producing the perfect performance in that one moment of time.

But he added optimistically: "Everything is possible and if they deliver their personal bests the medal table will take care of itself."

Roll on the start of the Games on 12 February!

But the budding curler's parents Gordon and Lin allowed the 12-year-old to stay up late and watch the television as Rhona Martin and her team took on Switzerland in the Olympic curling final taking place at Ogden Ice Sheet near Salt Lake City in February 2002.

And together with millions of other Brits who formed a cult following for the sport over that memorable Olympics, Muirhead was ecstatic as housewife Martin's final stone clinched a 4-3 victory in the early hours of the morning - and with it Britain's first Winter Olympic gold since Torvill and Dean in 1984.

"We talked of nothing else at school that morning," Muirhead told me.

But whereas her schoolmates were revelling in a rare Scottish sporting success, she was already planning her future: "From that moment it was what I wanted to do. I wanted to be like Rhona and win an Olympic gold medal."

Just two Winter Olympiads later, Muirhead - now 19 - has the chance to do just that.

She is skip of the Great Britain women's team and will lead Jackie Lockhart, Kelly Wood, Lorna Vevers and Karen Addison in Vancouver in February.

Muirhead has a great curling pedigree: her father is a former world silver medallist, and introduced his daughter to the sport when she was 10, when she was immediately hooked.

It has been a meteoric rise for Muirhead, having won three World Junior Championship golds as skip, but then again she has been getting some top mentoring - from one Rhona Martin, who was head coach at the last World Juniors, held at the Olympic venue in Vancouver.

"The first time I met her I was in awe because I thought she was a celebrity but she was lovely and is such an inspiration," Muirhead says.

Can she emulate her heroine and come away with an Olympic medal?

"It's definitely realistic but the aim is to get through the round robin stage and then see where we go from there."

Not only is Scot Muirhead one of the best young curlers in the world, she is also an accomplished piper with the Blair Atholl Pipe Band and plays off a two handicap in golf.

These two passions have had to take a back seat while curling has become all consuming.

The men's British skip David Murdoch has been focusing on 2010 ever since he left Turin four years ago empty handed.

Great Britain were beaten in the bronze medal match by the United States and the dairy farmer from Lockerbie does not want to experience that disappointment and frustration again in a hurry.

After the last Winter Olympics, UK Sport trebled curling's funding to £1.1m and there has been additional money and resources from Sportscotland and the Scottish Institiute of Sport.

And the men's team - competing as Scotland - have already repaid that faith by winning the European Championships in 2008 and then the world title last April, beating hot favourites Canada on their home ice in Monkton.

Great Britain's men's and women's teams both have their sights on medals

"If we hadn't had that extra funding then we wouldn't be standing here as world champions. It has taken us to a whole new level and given us an extra edge," Murdoch says.

The funding has enabled them to meet up three times a week in Perth for training as well as being able to compete in world-class competitions and work with sport psychologists, nutritionists and fitness coaches, who have helped improve their strength and conditioning and their cardio vascular capacity.

Curling is tough both mentally and physically, as games can last up to three hours each, and teams can play up to three matches a day in a hectic competition schedule, so curlers need a lot of stamina and brain power.

Add to this the fact the ice conditions can vary along with the performance of the stones and you begin to understand what a fascinating sport it is - decided by a few millimetres here and there.

Canada will be the overwhelming favourites but Murdoch and his men have beaten them before.

"The pressure is certainly on Canada so we're hoping to sneak under the radar," he says.

But he clearly wants to leave with a medal.

"I've got world and European and countless other medals but the one missing from the trophy cabinet is an Olympic medal. We've trained hard for four years and we're certainly ready," he adds.

Will there be late night television viewing for closet curling fans on the 26 and 27 February when the gold medal matches are played? Murdoch and Muirhead certainly hope so.

I was lucky enough to be at Liverpool's unbelievable triumph in the Champions League final in Istanbul in 2005 where I have never seen so many male football fans crying with joy and emotionally drained at the end of such an epic evening.

Three years earlier I was at Ogden ice sheet near Salt Lake City nervously watching as Rhona Martin sent that final stone down to clinch curling glory for Great Britain - the country's first Winter Olympic gold medal since Torvill and Dean back in 1984.

British winter sport gold medals are almost as rare as hen's teeth so I felt extremely proud and honoured as the curlers flung their special brushes in the air and screamed with delight.

But one incident which sticks in my mind is the snowboard-cross final at the 2006 Games in Turin...

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She was well ahead of her three rivals in the final and was nailed on for a gold medal - until she attempted a grab off the last jump and ended up on her backside. Switzerland's Tanja Frieden could not believe her luck as she whizzed by for an unlikely victory.

But in a bizarre twist Jacobellis' foul-up brought the sport to the world's attention and it proved such a great hit the International Olympic Committee was more than happy to embrace the inclusion of the ski version for the 2010 Games.

Add to the fact skiers race on two skis and use poles, means the potential for crashes and incidents are even higher than snowboard-cross.

So prepare for a rock 'n roll ride when ski-cross comes to Cypress Mountain on 21 and 23 February.

"The ultimate downhill race with the biggest adrenaline rush" is how Britain's top ski-cross racer Emily Sarsfield describes her sport.

Former American alpine star turned ski-cross speedster Daron Rahlves told me: "It's action-packed, there's hustling from top to bottom and kinds of blends skiing and moto-cross, my favourite two sports."

Rahlves was a very successful alpine racer who won 12 World Cup races and three World Championship medals but retired at the end of the 2006 season because he wanted a lifestyle change.

He planned to start a family with wife Michelle and use his time to go off free skiing and make films.

But then a pro tour in ski-cross emerged and Rahlves admitted: "It was a chance to let loose my competitive energy".

Three years on - and now father of two-year-old twins Dreyson and Miley - Rahlves is preparing for his fourth Winter Olympics - and could he finally get his hands on an elusive medal?

"It's awesome to be going to an Olympics again, competing for my nation against the best skiers in the world.

"In the Olympics, there's a lot of effort to be the best and come out with some hardware so each nation has put a big step forward and a lot of effort into their teams.

"The level has increased so much over the last three years, it's more motivating to put the effort into it.

"I feel a little guilty because I'm not able to prepare like I used to as I have a wife, two kids, a business in real estate and other ski commitments.

"So the time commitment is not there but the intensity still is."

The start is all-important when it comes to the sport and Rahlves has installed a start-gate at his home in Truckee, Californa.

"I have no snow but I have a dirt mound and artificial snow mats so at least I can practice the technique."

Sarsfield knows too well the battle for a British skier to compete against the world's best as she combines her sporting career with her day job as a sports development officer working with children in her home city, Durham.

And as Vancouver looms, the 26-year-old is fighting to be fit for the Olympics - and for the right to represent Team GB.

Last February, ironically during a test event on the Cypress Mountain course which will be used for the Games, Sarsfield snapped her knee ligaments and after two operations has only recently returned to the snow. She kept a diary to convince herself the tiny improvements each day would culminate in a full return to the sport.

And with the help of the British Olympic Medical Institute's intensive rehabilitation unit at Bisham Abbey, where her health and fitness have been closely monitored, she is now raring to go and will be back competing at World Cup level later in December.

However her other battle is getting selected. Both Sarsfield and number two Sarah Sauvey have satisfied the IOC's selection criteria but British governing body SnowsportGB has increased it further and will only select both if they finish within the top 15 of a World Cup race, which is a tall order.

When you meet Sarsfield she is very bubbly and down to earth but she clearly isn't relishing going head-to-head with her pal for an Olympic place.

"It's been quite difficult for Sarah and me to come to terms with. For the last four years she has been my best friend and coach and vice versa but we know what is required."

It has been a childhood dream for Sarsfield, who began skiing at the age of three, to represent her country at an Olympics but she thought her chance had gone after a modest alpine career petered out because of a lack of funding.

However her coach at the time pushed her into ski-cross at the 2005 University Games, held in Innsbruck, Austria.

"I thought it was a crazy sport to begin with but I finished sixth, beating girls on the World Cup circuit, and thought maybe this is a niche for my skiing.

"When it was announced ski-cross would become an Olympic sport, it awakened all those childhood dreams again."

And if she does succeed, the Sarsfield clan will be heading to Canada to support her - despite dad Ernie's initial reticence in his daughter's choice of sport - "bring her home, she's not doing that" was his not-so-subtle first response.

But she got her own back by saying: "I blame him for making me competitive because he is so competitive. I wouldn't like you to sit around our table when there's a Monopoly game going on, that's for sure!"

Well the 2010 Games are just around the corner, starting on 12 February in Vancouver, Canada, to be precise, and will conjure up new unexpected heroes for their own 15 minutes of fame.

And one of these could well be Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong.

While most Winter Olympians dream of standing on the podium, proudly displaying a medal around their necks, he will be hoping not to finish last.

It doesn't sound much of an aspiration, but the skier wants to make his nation - Ghana - proud.

He has become the first Ghanaian to qualify for the Winter Olympics and will be competing in slalom and giant slalom at Whistler Creekside .

He is fully aware of his novelty status but is desperate not to be tagged in the same hapless loser category as Eddie the Eagle, the British ski jumper (in the loosest sense of the word) who came to the world's attention with his glorious failure at the Calgary Olympics in 1988.

He told me: "I don't want to finish last. There are a couple of small nation competitors I want to beat so I'm rubbing my hands and gearing up to try and thrash them.

"I also want to try and close the gap between the time of the guy who finishes first and me."

Which might take some effort.

Having looked at his statistics, Nkrumah-Acheampong has only competed at the top level - and by this I mean the World Ski Championships - on two occasions, at Are, Sweden, in 2007 and in 2009 at Val d'Isere in France.

In 2007, he finished last in the giant slalom and in 2009 he found himself in a similar position in the slalom, 36 seconds behind the winner, Austria's Manfred Pranger.

There was more cheer in the giant slalom, when he didn't finish rock bottom, he managed to beat racers from Nepal and Mongolia, but was still more than one minute behind gold medallist, Switzerland's Carlo Janka.

Nkrumah-Acheampong said he would like to pitch his Olympic dream nearer to the Cool Runnings guys, the Jamaican bobsleigh team from 1988 who triumphed against the odds and famously had a film made after them.

"They came into a sport, nobody expected them to do well and they kind of changed the face of bobsleigh because their push-start times were really competitive.

"The Eddie the Eagle story kind of got out of hand, a whole media fracas.

"I see myself as trying to do my best with the resources available."

Nkrumah-Acheampong has not taken the convential route to becoming an Olympic skier.

Although born in Scotland he was raised in Ghana but moved back to the UK in 2002 - and ironically it was snowing when he stepped off the plane.

He took a job at Xscape, the indoor snow centre at Milton Keynes, and was able to mess around on skis like the rest of the employees.

"I entered fun races at the end of the season and didn't do too badly, coming in the top 20 so I thought I'd train with some ski racers and see if I was good at ski racing."

And he did seem to have a natural aptitude for the sport so he set about qualifying for the 2006 Winter Olympics but he narrowly missed out on satisfying the qualification criteria.

Instead of putting him off, it only made him more determined and earlier this year he succeeded, taking odd jobs and trying to secure sponsorship to help fund his battle, including getting fans and well-wishers to "sponsor a spot" on his snow leopard ski suit.

Most of his training takes place at the unglamorous setting of Hemel Hempstead Snow Centre in Hertfordshire, which is not ideal as the slope is only 160m long.

But he does also have an arrangement with Italian ski resort Val di Fiemme where he is now ruthlessly preparing for the Winter Olympics, spending eight hours a day on the snow.

He has had to sacrifice time with his wife, Sena, who works at the Open University in Milton Keynes, and his young children Ellice and Jason, but ultimately they will be with him when it matters, slope side in Canada.

And he is hoping his appearance will have a lasting legacy for the right reasons - and he genuinely believes an African can make it to the top in ski racing with the right training.

"I wake up some mornings and ask myself "what have you gone and done?" I get e-mails from people saying they're going to be watching me so there is pressure, pressure from all angles.

"But I think I have a unique opportunity to open up a special door into the Winter Olympics for Ghana so I hope I go to the Olympics and ski in such a way that people go "wow"."

And to this end he has set up a project, supported by American skier Ted Ligety, to build an artificial ski slope in Ghana, on the Akuapem Hills in Mamfe.

"I want people to say "If it's taken only six years for this guy to go this far, we can do better".

"The majority of people in Ghana think I'm crazy but some think I'm doing something unique, to inspire Ghanaians and Africans to try something different."