Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ

One of the most enjoyable parts of my job is filming short video biographies of Britain's Winter Olympic stars.

The premise is simple: produce a short video where our usually-terrified sporting victim shares a few insights into their character.

Calling them biographies is probably a poor choice of words. You won't be able to watch these and find out dates of birth, how athletes grew up, or facts and figures about their career. But you will, hopefully, get a sense of what they are like - what motivates them, why they chose their sport, and what they hope to achieve.

Sticking a camera in front of someone also tends to do a fine job of showing how confident they feel about themselves in the run-up to an event as big as February's Winter Olympics. So it's no surprise that Britain's top ice dance duo, , shone in front of the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ lens.

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Imagine going through your post to discover a letter from a wealthy stranger offering you thousands of pounds, for no return, to help your career.

No catches, he writes. Just be a good role model and don't take anything illegal. Let him know what you want and, if he thinks it's a reasonable demand, it's yours.

You would need time to digest this, and you would certainly have questions. Who is he? Why choose me? What does he want back from me?

Those were the questions 15 top British athletes posed themselves when insurance entrepreneur Barrie Wells got in touch. One said it felt like "a fairytale-type scam" as her eyes glanced down the letter.

But now, her doubts brushed aside, she is "his" athlete, topping up her standard funding with up to Β£8,000 from his wallet each year.

Who has Wells chosen, why did he choose them, and how has one man become an Olympic cash machine for our stars?

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The winter season is now going strong, and athletes all over the world have a chance to show that their Winter Olympic ambitions are more than just talk.

It is up to the GB team to prove, as the Winter Olympics is , that the British public have plenty to get excited about from their sofas come February.

Last week, Eleanor Oldroyd suggested one reason to watch: the propensity for Winter Olympic events to go horribly, entertainingly, wrong. As she was writing that, British skeleton's Kristan Bromley produced another reason: the chance of a GB gold medal in Vancouver, having in the first World Cup event of the season.

This blog isn't just about reasons to watch in February, but also what to watch now (and where to watch it), how things like events and qualifying work, and the latest on the British team's Olympic hopes.

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We're now less than 100 days away from the , which begin in the Canadian city of Vancouver on 12 February.

As a member of our Olympics reporting team and an ice hockey commentator, I'll be in Vancouver (and Whistler) alongside Rob Hodgetts and Anna Thompson, covering the Games for the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Sport website.

But the Games won't just emerge out of nothing. The world's top winter sports athletes are already getting stuck into the winter season - there is action all over the place as they cram in training sessions and try to get the kind of results, and confidence, that will see them on to medals in Canada.

Here's a round-up of what's been going on, including links to the best stuff on the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ and elsewhere, and a look ahead to the coverage we've got coming up.

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