By Mark Staniforth, PA Sport, Salt Lake City

With the hot dogs having long since run out, and the Goatburgers in the Dead Goat Saloon still as unappetising as ever, the Great British Winter Olympic team will no doubt expect their critics in Salt Lake City to turn their dietary focus up on large portions of humble pie.

How Chef de Mission Simon Clegg was mocked when he predicted on the eve of the Games that they could be Britain's most successful since the Second World War.

Despite a dismal first week, the lowlights of which included mogul skier Sam Temple being beaten by an opponent who completed his run with a badly injured leg, and Chemmy Alcott getting a piece of grit stuck in her eye before she even started the super-giant slalom, Clegg's prediction is now reality.

Bronze for Alex Coomber and at least silver for the women's curling team has eclipsed Britain's record in both 1948 and 1994 of two bronzes.

In the context of all things Olympian it may not be much to shout about, it may only have brought us level with Slovenia and Belarus in the medals table, but the fact is that within approximately two hectic minutes in Utah today Great Britain sealed their best Winter Games for 66 years.

Coomber and the curlers are cause for justifiable celebration, but their success will undoubtedly obscure some of the more unpalatable facts.

Around £5million, a figure made up by the British Olympic Association and the Lottery, was invested in this team. The £240,000 which was spent on skeleton will doubtless now be considered money well spent.

The six figure sums ploughed into snowboarding and bobsleigh are another matter entirely. We are clearly not improving in either.

And the BOA need a long hard think about those sports' funding futures when they discuss their budget for Turin in 2006.

Indeed some of the more creditable performances within the British team have come from athletes who were up against the odds.

Coomber was considerably disadvantaged by not having a home track, unlike each one of her podium rivals.

Luger Mark Hatton was 25th, generally regarded the first week's best result. Hatton receives no funding at all and actually spends £5,000 of his own money on his annual slog around the globe.

Many will suggest that higher expectations are largely unjustified given a climate which is hardly conducive to practising for success on snow or ice.

They are right to an extent, but then if the reality is no negative, why send a bloated squad of 50 to the Games - the limited and largely unrealised ambitions of the majority merely to secure a place in the top half of the field.

Coomber says she hopes her bronze will be the first step in fostering a greater understanding of the difficulties faced by Britain's winter Olympians, and affording them a greater respect.

But the lack of proper facilities is hardly going to persuade groups of young girls to emulate Coomber, grabbing tea trays out of their kitchens and tearing off the wheels of their brothers' skateboards before heading for the nearest tarmac hill.

A smaller team would have won greater respect and appreciation from the rest of the world, instead of chortling at the latest biathlete who finished 81st and would have freed up funding for that handful of real stars of the future.

Coomber and Rhona Martin's team have given Britain a games to remember, but things must change if Turin 2006 is going to eclipse their achievements here.

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