British Snowsports Get Welcome Boost as UK Sport Invest Much-Needed Funding

British Ski & Snowboard (snowsports) athletes have finally received the news they’ve been waiting to hear for over two years after It was announced on Friday that British Ski and Snowboard will be awarded £348, ailment 450 by UK Sport, unhealthy the nation’s high performance sports agency, treatment for athlete preparations in the run up to the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic Games.

Snowsport GB collapsed prior to the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games , leaving athletes with insufficient funding. This also meant UK Sport was unable to invest in snow sports until the new British Ski and Snowboard governing body was fully established.

UK Sport is now confident that a performance programme to support the most talented snow sports athletes has been put in place and is now able to start investing, in order to seize the opportunities within the sport to win medals in Sochi in 2014.

The award is primarily focused at the new Olympic slopestyle disciplines where Britain currently has a number of athletes who have been on the Podium at world premier events.

This initial award will run to September this year to support the athletes for the remainder of the current competition season. After this the situation will be reviewed and a decision on whether to make a further award to cover the rest of the run up to Sochi will be made.

Liz Nicholl, Chief Executive of UK Sport, said: “UK Sport is pleased to welcome British Ski and Snowboard to the winter sports World Class Performance Programme. It is testament to the recent progress they have made as a sport after a difficult period.

“We have, as ever, applied our investment principles rigorously and the sport has made a credible business case for a performance programme that could deliver medallists at the Winter Olympics in Sochi 2014. They have made significant strides on a performance potential basis and this initial investment is recognition of the work that has been done so far.”

David Edwards, Chief Executive of British Ski and Snowboard, added: “We are delighted that UK Sport shares our view of the potential for our athletes to win medals in Sochi and future Olympic events and we are very grateful for the support announced today.

“When SnowsportGB went in to administration in January 2010 Lord Moynihan took on the Chairmanship of British ski and snowboard, the replacement Governing body for snowsports. Since then we have raised substantial funding for our athletes, put a new robust governance structure in place and worked closely with UK Sport on plans for the future.

“With the help of the BOA we have achieved a tremendous amount for Snowsport in Great Britain in the last two years.  With this game changing award from UK Sport the bar is now set higher. We look forward to the next two years with huge enthusiasm!”

The award aims to support three podium and five development athletes and British Ski and Snowboard will now finalise the selection criteria and begin to award funding to individual athletes so watch this space to find out who is selected on to the programme.

by Ismail Uddin