
It has not been the Olympic Games that Nottingham’s athletes hoped for.
Much of Team GB’s medal hopes were on Elise Christie prior to the games, as it was hoped that Great Britain had a trailblazer in their ranks. After all, she won three World Championship gold medals last year and has been dominating women’s short track for the past three years.
Christie, 27, was disqualified in all three of her events four years ago in Sochi and received heavy abuse on social media ever since.
Unfortunately, Christie – who is based in Nottingham – has had another Winter Olympics to forget as she returns home empty-handed.
Having crashed out of the 500m and been stretchered off the ice following the 1500m, all hopes were left on the 1000m – her favourite event. Even though she finished the race, she was disqualified for two penalties that resulted in a yellow card.
Short track speed skating will now find it a challenge to keep their funding at its current level as they failed to achieve their target of at least one medal. UK Sport invested £4.8 million in the sport during the PyeongChang Olympic cycle and will be disappointed not to have picked up any medals.
Of course, at last year’s World Championships, Christie did collect three golds and one bronze medal and Chef de Mission Mike Hay would argue the impact that has been made in the last four years is due to the funding received.
But in the past, Olympic performances have taken precedent and no one will be more heartbroken than Christie herself.
Elsewhere in the short track speed skating 22-year-old Farrell Treacy, competing in his first Olympics, was the only male skater who advanced further than the heats. Treacy, who trains at the Nottingham Ice Arena, finished second in his heat but failed to progress further than the quarter-finals as he came fourth.
Josh Cheetham, 25, who was born and raised in Nottingham, did not manage to get further than the heats. It was the same case for Kathryn Thomson, 22, who trains at the Ice Arena, who did not advance from the heats in all three sprint distances.
Charlotte Gilmartin, 26, the reigning 3000m European champion, did manage to progress from the 1500m heats but did not get past the quarter-final stage.
In the figure skating, Nick Buckland and Penny Coomes, both from Nottingham and Nottingham Trent University alumni, failed to improve on their tenth place finish four years ago finishing 11th in the ice dance competition in PyeongChang.
It has been less than two years since Coomes shattered her knee in eight places and required two operations.
Coomes told BBC Sport: “I’m so happy to be back and I really enjoyed myself.
“The audience were great, we had a great skate and soaked it all up and I’m happy with the whole experience.
“We gave it everything but the score is disappointing for us and not what we came here to do.”