LIVIGNO, Italy — Move over Torvill and Dean. Britain has a great, new Winter Olympics pairing.
Charlotte Bankes and Huw Nightingale won the first gold medal on snow in the island country's 102-year history at the Winter Games after crossing the line first Sunday in the wild sport of mixed snowboardcross.
This ''Cold Gold'' also marks the first time Britain has won multiple titles at the same Games. It's only the nation's 15th overall gold medal at the Winter Games, five of which have come in figure skating.
Its most famous Winter athletes to this point: possibly Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean, the ice dancers who captivated the world by dancing to ''Bolero'' and captured a gold medal in 1984 and bronze in 1994.
In mixed snowboardcross, the first set of riders go down the mountain four-wide, while the second set waits at the top of the hill in something resembling a relay race. Whichever team crosses the line first in the four-team final gets gold.
There are three rounds of elimination racing. Fittingly, the British came into the final as the underdog — seeded 13th out of the 16 teams that qualified.
There were no real signs this was coming. Bankes finished 13th in the women's event and Nightingale 26th in the men's event last week. But everything came together on a sunny day in Livigno.
''The singles were tough but now there are tears of joy,'' Nightingale said.
