Dom Parsons- our Winter Olympics bronze medal hero.

Dom Parsons- our Winter Olympics bronze medal hero.

Remember where you heard about it first. You were sitting in your living room late at night nursing a late night cup of piping hot coffee, pondering the mysteries of snowboarding and curling and then realising that you should have been fast asleep. Then you were awoken with a start when you discovered that a Briton had won a bronze medal in the Winter Olympics. After all when was the last time that had happened and besides it was only a bronze. Still a medal is a medal and this was an Olympic medal.

But hold on folks. Last night amid a snow blizzard of celebration and euphoria, a certain gentleman by the name of Dom Parsons won a bronze medal for Britain in the Winter Olympics. No you weren't dreaming and yes it definitely came to pass. Dom Parsons, against all the laws of probabilities, astonished everybody in Britain with the most surprising of all bronze medals in any Winter Olympics Games events.

Just when you thought it was safe to turn over and nod off for the night Dom Parsons came from nowhere to clinch a bronze medal when it looked for one fleeting moment, that it was not to be his day. In a controversial finish to the men's skeleton, Parsons took the deepest breath, agonised for a minute or so, convinced that a medal of any description had eluded him. Then, as if fate had changed its mind for one amazing moment, Parsons had been told that he was the man who'd snatched the glory.

The facts are that Parsons had won a bronze medal for the men's skeleton which, to the uninitiated, looks like the kind of sport which should, almost of necessity, require not only a life insurance policy but guts and bloody minded fortitude. To the outsider and the impartial, it looks the craziest, zaniest and most ludicrous sporting spectacle you've ever seen. In reality it is sport at its most astounding.

And yet however long it took Parsons took to negotiate this head spinning, roller coaster exhibition of sheer and raw courage, we must have been gripped. How often do our British heroes win a major sporting victory on what the harshest critics and jokers laughingly describe as a tea tray? But what do they know about sport because the men's skeleton in the Winter Olympics not only embodies all of the Olympic ideals it goes much further, transcending anything and everything in its path.

On another day of derring do at the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, a British Winter Olympian laid the whole of his body vertically and aerodynamically on to his skeleton and then launched himself  bravely and intrepidly on the most courageous journey of his life. Before it all none of us had ever heard of Dom Parsons but then we realised that Dominic or Dom had gone well beyond duty in the service of his country and nobody would forget his name. Dom had become an overnight sensation, a genuine superstar. Before you know it, he'll be elevated as Sir Dom, a knight of the realm. There will be no more deserving recipient of the honour.

Like a human missile Parsons thrust himself heroically onto an icy chute and propelled himself forward, arms firmly drawn into his side, head streamlined and straight and body prepared for the most gruelling of all Winter Olympic distances. Faster and faster he went, hurtling around one sharp bend after another, a man seemingly obsessed and totally dedicated to the Olympic spirit and cause.

This is sport at its most indescribable, its most improbable and above all completely breathtaking. It is sport that defeats all logic and reasoning. But this is sport that is totally compelling and compulsively watchable. For those who remain slightly sceptical of its inherent dangers, you couldn't help but be drawn into its raw and elemental power, a sense of fascination heightened by the completely unexpected.

A couple of days ago an American gentleman by the name of Shaun White won the snowboard gold medal and totally blew away not only the stunned observers but also captured the hearts of those who, perhaps mistakenly, believed that White was completely mad. After all, what man in his right mind would even think of performing and beautifully executing some of the most spellbinding manoeuvres without thinking for a moment that it was nothing more than a day at the office.

White did everything he could to persuade us that the human body is capable of doing anything in the unlikeliest of circumstances. He challenged himself to act out the seemingly impossible and then accomplished his unenviable task in much the way we photo copy a vital document. White, pushing himself, then flung his board into the air, threw his body high into the cold South Korean wintry air, spinning, whirling and then acting out some of the most acrobatic stunts that any sporting audience had ever seen.

 He flipped, turned his body upside down with the most original of contortions, adjusting his body in mid air almost miraculously,  then going higher and higher, gripping the board with a rare tenacity, twisting and turning before finishing the whole display with what appeared the most incredible of aerial somersaults, double and triple loops that reminded you of a Red Arrows air show.

Our commentators treated us to some of the most technical of jargon, the stock phrases of snowboarding that have become everyday language in the sport. But this was Shaun White, an athlete of extraordinary flexibility and versatility, a man undaunted by life's more extreme demands and determined to do the kind of things you or I would probably have to take a rain check on because the man or woman in the street would think we were crazy.

So far so good then for the Winter Olympics in the mystical Far Eastern corner of South Korea. The pundits and commentators have worn their thickest boiler suits, thickly wrapped in the warmest scarves and trying hard not to look as though they'd rather be on some hot beach in the Maldives. So far the citizens of PyeongChang have done themselves proud and, most admirably, have shaken hands with their North Korean neighbours in a kiss and make up, peaceful entente cordiale fashion.

Everybody is enjoying themselves in the highest snowy peaks and the sound of clinking Schnapps can be heard in every chalet and hotel. The Olympian spirit is still flourishing and maybe the world has turned a corner at long last. There are those who probably think that the Koreans are bound to fall out with each other again, that it's too good to be true. Once our backs are turned they'll only start fighting and bickering with each other again. Still this is the Winter Olympics of 2018 and we have to hope and keep the faith. After all it's Tokyo in two years time and another summer Olympics will beckon. Happy Days!