Look to the past: The three nations with a single Olympic Winter Games medal
Qualifying for the Olympic Winter Games can be the challenge of a lifetime. Winning a medal, even more so. Here is how a group of eight athletes made history by winning the first Olympic Winter Games medal in their nations' histories.
On 4 February, Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 will officially get underway, and the best winter athletes in the world will take centre stage.
We will no doubt see first-time Olympians on the slopes and ice of Beijing, while others will return to the Games on the hunt for another medal to add to their collection.
And then there are those men and women who will try to make history for their nations at the Games for a second time.
Only three National Olympic Committees (NOCs) have a solitary medal to their name in the history of the Winter Olympics. Will Beijing 2022 provide them with the opportunity to add to their tally?
Uzbekistan: Freestyle skiing, 1994
Lina Cheryazova arrived for the Lillehammer 1994 Olympic Games as the gold-medal favourite in the aerial competition, and with good reason; the Uzbek was the reigning world champion and had won five World Cup events in a row.
However, sports can be unpredictable. During a training run in Lillehammer, Cheryazova crashed and lost consciousness. She was able to recover and compete, and scraped through to the final in 12th position following the qualifying rounds.
In the final, Cheryazova proved why she was the favourite by winning the gold medal (by less than a point!), in the process becoming the first (and currently only) athlete representing Uzbekistan to win a Winter Olympic medal, as well as the first Olympic champion in women's aerials.
Denmark: Curling, 1998
It may surprise you to learn that the Scandanavian nation of Denmark has only won one medal at the Winter Games.
Denmark made its Winter Olympic debut at the 1948 Games in St. Moritz, and 50 years later the Danes had their first medal, courtesy of women's curling.
Helena Blach Lavrsen, Margit Poertner, Dorthe Holm, Trine Qvist and Jane Bidstrup formed the Danish quintet that won silver at Nagano 1998, when the sport returned to the Olympic program as a medal event after 74 years.
Denmark arrived to Nagano as runner-ups and bronze medallists at the last two world championships; not to mention their victory at the 1997 European Championships.
Denmark has failed to return to the Olympic curling podium since '98, but will have another opportunity in Beijing as the women's team have qualified for the Games.
Romania: Bobsleigh, 1968
Grenoble 1968 was the stage for Nicolae Neagoe and Ion Panţuru to win Romania's first and only Winter Olympic medal: bronze in the two-man bobsleigh competition.
The pair were on course to win another bronze as part of Romania's four-man sled, but ultimately finished in fourth; just a tenth of a second away from the podium.
While Neagoe only competed at Grenoble 1968, Panţuru (who piloted the sled) competed at Innsbruck 1964, Sapporo 1972 and Innsbruck 1976, but he was unable to win another medal.
