GREAT BRITAIN is braced for its best Winter Olympics in history, according to projections made by elite funding body UK Sport.

The agency has set an expected medal range of four to eight for the Games, which take place in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo next month.

The top end of that estimate would take Team GB comfortably beyond the current record of five medals claimed at consecutive Olympics in Sochi in 2014 and Pyeongchang in 2018.

UK Sport’s director of performance Kate Baker said: “Our medal ranges reflect the fact that British athletes are arriving at the Games in hugely competitive form with enormous potential to deliver memorable, extraordinary sporting moments for the British public to enjoy.”

British winter athletes have achieved unprecedented success during the current Olympic cycle.

Matt Weston and Marcus Whyatt have carved up all six of this season’s men’s skeleton World Cups between them, as well as topping the mixed team standings with two wins from three races so far.

Bruce Mouat’s men’s curling team head to Cortina on top of the world rankings, likewise his partnership with Beijing gold medallist Jennifer Dods in the mixed doubles.

British athletes have won medals in five snowboard and freestyle World Cup disciplines this season, led by 18-year-old Mia Brookes, who will start as one of the favourites in the women’s snowboard Big Air.

And after their stunning world bronze in Boston last year, ice dancers Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson stand a strong chance of claiming Britain’s first medal in the discipline since Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean in 1984.

UK Sport chiefs have also projected a range of two to five medals for the Winter Paralympics, which are due to start in March.