British Ski & Snowboard say they’re going to be investing in ski and board sports outside the ‘park and pipe programme’ that has been the focus of funding in the lead up to the past few Olympics, generating three Olympic medals over the last two campaigns.
The announcement came as UK Sport announced a substantial rise in funding for the British Ski & Snowboard team in the run up to the Beijing 2022 Olympics following their best ever Olympic results year in PyeongChang, South Korea, earlier this year.
“Our aim is to be one of the top five snowsports nations by 2030, and we need to be competitive across a range of disciplines if we are going to get there. Over the course of the next four years we’re going to see more investment across more sports, while ensuring our park and pipe programme remains right up there with the best in the world,” said Vicky Gosling, CEO of British Ski & Snowboard.
UK Sport has confirmed around £24 million in funding for the Beijing 2022 cycle of which around a quarter, £6.75 million has gone towards British Ski & Snowboard, an increase of around 31% from the PyeongChang cycle, while Parasnowsports will receive up to £3.5 million, up 26%.
Funding was largely based on Olympic and Paralympic success in PyeongChang with sleleton also getting a boost after Lizzy Yarnold’s gold but other ice sports losing out and overall there was an £8m cut in funding for Britons hoping to compete and succeed in Beijing.
British Ski & Snowboard have announced that investment in snowsports leading into Beijing will be much broader, focussing on more disciplines, more programmes and more athletes than ever before.
“This (funding) is great news for all of our sports and of course the athletes themselves. It is not only a sign of the progression British snowsports has made in recent years, it also shows UK Sport believe we will continue to generate more Olympic medals on snow, something that hadn’t even been achieved before 2014,” added Vicky Gosling, who concluded,
“There’s a lot of hard work still to be done, but we’re already getting the right programmes and coaching structures in place to set ourselves up for the best chance of success.”
