Maybe not, but it happened.
Tonight, flag bearers Matt Weston and Charlotte Bankes will lead Team GB to the closing ceremony in Verona as the curtain closes on a historic Games for the nation.
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By winning five medals, GB equaled their record from 2014 and 2018.
But it has been the country’s most successful Winter Olympics since snowboarders Bankes and Huw Nightingale won the second of those golds in mixed team snowboard cross.
Never before had Great Britain won more than one gold medal at a Winter Olympic Games. That fact has now been buried deep in the snow.
Weston fueled the gold rush, withstanding the heavy pressure on his shoulders to win the men’s skeleton title that was always within his reach to lose.
On what became known as ‘Super Sunday’, Bankes and Nightingale won Team GB’s first Olympic gold medal on snow, a victory which was followed just hours later by the success of the mixed team of Weston and Tabby Stoecker at the Cortina Sliding Centre.
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On the penultimate night of competition, the men’s curling team, skipped by Bruce Mouat, won their second consecutive Olympic silver, before freestyle skier Zoe Atkin concluded the Team GB Games the following day with halfpipe bronze.
“These Games have been incredible and history-making,” Team GB chef de mission Eve Muirhead told BBC Sport.
“These Games have really shown that we are capable, that we have a lot of potential and that we are growing. We are a growing winter nation, which is really exciting.”
“With the French Alps (Winter Olympics) four years away, this is a catalyst for those Games.”
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‘Quarters make champions’
But despite all the medals, there were all those who were on the verge of missing out.
In total, there were five fourth place finishes, some of which were by very narrow margins.
Take freestyle skier Kirsty Muir, for example. Just 0.41 points was the difference between bronze and fourth place in elopestyle.
If he hadn’t squatted on a landing in his last race, he would have been on the podium.
Distressingly, he then recorded another quarter on air.
Meanwhile, snowboarder Mia Brookes knew she needed to put in a big effort in her last big aerial race to have a chance of winning a medal, and so she did.
He landed a first trick of 1620 on the back of the competition, with four and a half rotations, but over-rotated at the last moment.
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If he had landed cleanly, he would have won a medal.
“Quarters make champions,” GB Snowsport chief executive Vicky Gosling told BBC Sport.
“We’re fourth in the world. Kirsty is from Aberdeen, she started on dry slopes. Mia started on dry slopes in Manchester and then look where they’ve come. We should be absolutely proud of what we’ve achieved here.”
During the Games, there were many other performances that might not have brought home a medal, but were record-breaking in their own right.
In cross-country skiing, Andrew Musgrave and James Clugnet achieved a fifth place finish in the team sprint event, the country’s best Olympic result in the sport.
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That improved on Musgrave’s sixth place finish in the 10km freestyle interval start, while Anna Pryce recorded the best British women’s finish at an Olympic Games with her 32nd place finish in the sprint classic.
Stoecker, Freya Tarbit and Amelia Coltman finished in the top 10 of the women’s skeleton, while there were more than 20 top 10 finishes in total.
“I think because of the depth and breadth of so many sports and disciplines, it shows that we are not a one-trick pony,” UK Sport performance director Kate Baker said.
“We’re mixing it with the best of winter sports. I think we can be very excited about what we’ve accomplished.”
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What happens next?
Team GB will fly home on Monday, after which post-Games reviews will begin, both by the British Olympic Association and the individual sports themselves.
During the four-year cycle leading up to the Milan-Cortina Games, UK Sport invested £25.5 million in winter sports in the Olympic programme, up from £22.2 million for the Beijing 2022 cycle.
Funding for the next cycle, until the 2030 Games, will be confirmed and announced in the summer, although individual sports have already been given a provisional figure for planning purposes.
But while it’s an important metric, funding isn’t just based on the number of medals earned or the reward for doing so. UK Sport also looks at future potential, as well as impact and resonance with the British public.
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Baker said BBC Sport Team GB athletes had gone “above and beyond” in delivering value for money, and when asked how that success is now based, he said: “The reality is we’ve been thinking about it for the last four years. Work is already underway to prepare for the next Games and indeed the ones after that.”
“We have real talent, there is no shortage of British talent and we know we can prove that we can combine it with the best on the world stage when necessary.
“The next four years will be about supporting the talent that is emerging and also making sure we do everything we can so that when they get to finals day, they are at their absolute best.”
However, UK Sport’s investment is not a constantly growing fund and sports are encouraged to work together and share resources where possible to build the greater good.
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Gosling, whose GB Snowsport organization received £7.3m in funding from UK Sport for its 2026 Olympic programme, but has had to generate additional commercial income, said: “We know we have the talent and the ability and the world has now seen that.
“We can deliver medals with what we have. We have shown it, but we have greater potential than what we are showing now.”
She added: “This is just the beginning. This is not the peak for us. There is so much more we can achieve. And I am very excited because the athletes who are competing and who are about to be lost, are athletes who are still very young and have a great future ahead of them.
“And guess what? 2030 is just around the corner and we’ll come back and show you. Hopefully we’ll turn those near misses into gold. The world is our oyster.”