GREAT BRITAIN enjoyed their best ever Winter Olympics this time around as medals fell throughout the 19 days of competition in Milan and Cortina.

Team GB won multiple gold medals for the first time at a Winter Games, with Matt Weston alone exceeding any previous tally.

The world number one won the men’s skeleton and then partnered Tabby Stoecker to the mixed team title — just hours after Charlotte Bankes and Huw Nightingale collected another gold in the mixed team snowboard cross.

Skeleton remains Britain’s most successful Winter Olympic discipline, now with 11 medals — three more than any other sport — after Weston and Stoecker’s efforts.

Bruce Mouat led the men’s curling team to silver at the weekend and Zoe Atkin rounded off the competition with ski halfpipe bronze.

Five total medals matches Britain’s best winter tally, with the best previous performance being one gold, one silver and three bronze medals at Sochi 2014, followed by a gold and four bronze at Pyeongchang 2018.

Chef de Mission Eve Muirhead declared Great Britain a nation “on the rise” in winter sports as Olympians received a hero’s welcome today following their record-breaking exploits in Italy.

Skeleton racer Weston led athletes into the arrivals hall at Gatwick airport this lunchtime, wearing his two gold medals and waving the Union Flag.

“To come away as the most successful [British] team at the Winter Olympics, coming away with the most-decorated male winter Olympian of all time in Matt Weston as well, it’s really special,” Muirhead told PA.

“It just really comes down to the history-makers, the athletes. They have been incredible.

“We’ve had a handful of fourth places, I think we’ve had 24 top 10s as well, so it really shows that we are a nation with a lot of potential and most definitely on the rise.”

Friends, family, and pupils from St. John’s C of E Primary School in Caterham were among those gathered in Gatwick’s South Terminal for a rousing homecoming.

“It was amazing to walk out there,” said Muirhead, who won curling gold at Beijing 2022 after bronze at Sochi 2014.

“It’s the history-makers, the athletes – this is their moment and they deserve every single bit of it because they really have been an incredible team out in Italy.”

Nightingale and Bankes bounced back from disappointing results in their respective individual competitions to win Britain’s first gold on snow.

Nightingale, 24, said: “For me it means quite a lot to show that GB is becoming a winter nation and we do have top athletes that are doing great in their sport, and we can hopefully get young kids to want to do what we wanted to do.”

Bankes, 30, who was a flagbearer at Sunday evening’s closing ceremony, said: “Coming back to the UK, it made me realise a bit more what we’ve achieved and all that comes with it, it’s really nice.

“Coming away with the gold, hopefully it’s inspired a lot of people into snowboarding, just to go out there and have fun and enjoy sport.”

Outside of Team GB’s efforts, Norway topped the medal table with 18 gold medals and 41 in all – thanks in no small part to Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo’s record-breaking cross country skiing efforts.

Klaebo won six gold medals, the most ever for an athlete at a single Winter Games and would have ranked ninth in the medal table if he was a country in his own right.