By Mark Staniforth, PA Sport, Salt Lake City

Salt Lake City 2002 may already be the most successful Winter Olympic Games for Great Britain since the Second World War, but the time has come to ensure once and for all that a Brit standing on the medal podium in the snow is no longer as rare a sight as catching a glimpse of the lesser-spotted bald eagle.

Britain's Chef de Mission Simon Clegg had been reduced to tears at skeleton trackside when, moments after Alex Coomber's bronze, news had filtered through of the women curlers' place in the final.

Clegg had predicted Britain's best Winter Olympics since the Second World War, and he was proved right.

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.

The golden performance of Rhona Martin and her unassuming team made up of housewives and office workers captured the imagination of the British public, literally sweeping their way to victory on the Ogden Ice Sheet.

But Clegg must know he must sit down and decide funding levels building up to the next Winter Games in Turin in 2006.

The bloated squad of 50 which Britain brought to Salt Lake City must surely be trimmed down for the good of those who can realistically seek to attain Olympian standards.

However, while Coomber and the curlers might have saved the day for Great Britain, even their dramatic successes could not entirely obscure some of the more unpalatable aspects of the 19th Winter Games.

The world converged on Utah ready to cut the Americans some slack, and even to stand united with their hosts in an entirely understandable outpouring of national pride.

But there is pride and then there is jingoism - and there has been some blurring of the line.

These Games have had many moments which were as sickly-sweet as the sugar cookies they hand out along with the Mormon pamphlets on the corner of North State Street.

Australian Steven Bradbury's fortunate win in the men's 1500 metres short-track final was one example.

Bradbury's moment of glory was spoiled by booing in the crowd. One spectator leaned over the front of the stand to shout, "you don't deserve the gold medal".

You see, Bradbury did not deserve it because it had been written for American glamour boy Apolo Anton Ohno to win four golds.

Never mind, he got another chance in the 1000m. He finished second behind Kim Dong-Sung, but was elevated to gold when Kim was disqualified after the smallest contact on the final lap.

One American television commentator enquired seriously on air after Bradbury's triumph, when the four leaders including Ohno had all crashed on the final bend, "Couldn't they re-run the race and give Apolo another chance at gold?"

It was not altogether unsurprising the International Skating Union did not take heed of such outlandish suggestion.

After all, they had capitulated under pressure led by the television networks and awarded Canadians David Pelletier and Jamie Sale a second gold medal in the pairs figure skating.

ISU president Ottavio Cinquanta cited impropriety among the judges, but would not immediately say what exactly that impropriety was.

The ISU did not have time to gather all the facts necessary to hold any kind of full inquiry.

But the second medal ceremony, with four athletes squashed on top of the podium, kept everybody happy. Except it did not.

The Russians, whose pair thought they had won gold outright and were then forced to share it, have protested and threatened to pull out of the Games.

The Koreans have protested Kim's disqualification.

The hasty decision to award gold to Pelletier and Sale seems to have set a dangerous precedent and the consequences of the ruling may be hard to handle.

And what about the women's skeleton, raced in a blizzard which hampered the progress of the competitors?

After Coomber had completed her second run and temporarily took over first place, there was a wait for an inordinate amount of time before the final two competitors, both Americans, set off again.

There were allegations that the track was being swept of snow so they could go faster.

Coomber did not want to comment, because she thought any controversy might take away from her bronze medal achievement.

Rhona Martin commented after her team's defeat to Germany in the final preliminary round match of the women's curling competition, and probably wishes she had not now.

"We're out, we're dead," she said. Four days later, she had a gold medal hanging around her neck.

Some of the superstars were sadly obscured by the simmering controversies.

Ole Einar Bjoerndalen won four biathlon golds for Norway. Another Norwegian, Kjetil Andre Aamodt, became the most decorated alpine skier in men's Olympic history.

America's Sarah Hughes announced herself as the coming force of women's figure skating. Switzerland's Simon Ammann grabbed a shock ski-jumping double high in the dramatic Wasatch Mountains.

At the other end of the Olympic scale, Salt Lake City welcomed a team of Venezuelan lugers and cross-country skiers from Cameroon, Kenya and Costa Rica.

Security delays have not been long and transportation in between venues has been to-the-minute perfect.

The venues themselves have befitted the Olympic sports which they showcased. The locals have been welcoming.

Overall things have gone much better than expected.

They will be remembered as a good Games. If only the Americans had cooled it just a little, they could have been great.