Future winter stars announced as Team GB selects 17 athletes for Erzurum 2017

The British Olympic Association (BOA) has today announced the 17 athletes selected to represent Team GB at the Erzurum 2017 European Youth Olympic Winter Festival (Erzurum 2017)

The athletes, all aged 15-17 years old, will compete across five of the nine disciplines at Erzurum 2017; alpine skiing, cross country skiing, figure skating, short track speed skating and snowboarding – with the Festival set to run from the 12th-18th February.

They will test themselves against Europe’s finest youth winter athletes as the Festival welcomes over 800 competitors from 40 nations for five days of action in Turkey.

Erzurum is hosting the 13th winter edition of EYOF with Team GB having sent athletes to all previous 12 Festivals. In total, nine disciplines will feature at Erzurum 2017, with biathlon, curling, ice hockey and ski jumping completing the programme.

With many of the senior Team GB athletes working on the road to the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games, EYOFs play a crucial role in the development of young British athletes and provides multi-sport event experience that helps them along the route to achieving their own Olympic dreams.

Team GB’s five alpine skiers will compete across three events; slalom, giant slalom and the parallel team event, with the latter set to make its Olympic debut in South Korea next year. The two snowboarders will race in the snowboard cross discipline and the four cross-country skiers will race across three distances of 10km, 7.5km and 1.4km.

The two British figure skaters will compete in the singles events while, on the same ice rink, Team GB’s four short track speed skaters will race across 500m, 1000m and 1500m distances as well as the 3000m mixed team relay.

Team GB at Erzurum 2017:

Team GB’s Chef de Mission Joe Divall said: “Representing your country at any level is a hugely proud moment and I congratulate these 17 athletes on their selection to Team GB. This is a great time to be a young British winter athlete and Erzurum 2017 will no doubt be an inspirational springboard for this group of selected athletes.

“The European Youth Olympic Winter Festival provides a great platform for athletes to get a taste of life at a senior Olympic Games and Erzurum 2017 will be a fantastic opportunity and learning experience for this talented group.”

Angus Wills, Alpine Skiing said: “It’s been a long term goal of mine to compete at this event, so to have been selected is awesome and of course being able to represent Team GB is an honour.

“My main focus in Erzurum is simply to ski well. I feel when I’m confident with my skiing the speed comes naturally, which hopefully will translate into some competitive times. Apart from my skiing I’m looking forward to enjoying the atmosphere and supporting the team in any way I can.

“Competing for Team GB at EYOF will give me a lot of self-confidence and valuable life lessons, as working towards selection for the event has been a goal of mine for a while now. It’s showed me that if you do really want to achieve something and you put in the work it can be done. Equally the event itself will also give me some valuable experience of racing under pressure, as they will be the biggest races of my career to date.”

Oliver Newman, Cross Country Skiing said: “The European Youth Olympic Festival has been an event I’ve wanted to go to for so long now and to be selected feels incredibly special. The idea of being part of a bigger team is really exciting and I want to come away from the event having met and interacted with lots of the other winter sport athletes from the various nations attending.

“It’s another step along the competitive pathway in Nordic skiing and it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity. I would love to take sport to a world class level one day and be competitive with the best athletes in the world, much like a couple of the senior British skiers are doing now.”

Anna Litvinenko, Figure Skating said: “I am highly honoured to have been selected for EYOF and I am very excited to represent my country at a such a major event. It is a huge privilege to be part of the team.

“This will be my first ever multi-sport event and I hope this will give me insight into competing at major events, especially the Olympics. It will be an invaluable experience and my dream is to one day compete at the Olympic Winter Games.

“My goal for Erzurum 2017 from a performance perspective is to perform to the best of my ability, to complete all of the elements perfectly, and for the audience to enjoy watching me. But away from the ice I’m looking forward to meeting all of the other members of Team GB, watching all of the other sports and supporting my teammates.”

Natalie Crawford, Short Track Speed Skating said: “I can’t believe that I have been selected to compete at such a major competition – it will be the pinnacle of my sporting career so far. Erzurum 2017 will be my first international competition so I am hoping to rise to the challenge of it by proving that I can perform at a high level and come away with new personal records. I’m training six days a week on and off the ice to get me ready.

“As an overall experience I am excited to be part of the whole Youth Olympic Festival and am looking forward to engaging with other athletes in the Athletes Village. I’m excited to meet new friends who are going through other performance pathways and to come away with lasting friendships. I am looking forward to the atmosphere in the village and the social aspect of all of the athletes together in one area.”

Maisie Hill, Snowboarding said: “It’s such an honour to be representing Great Britain in such a large event and want to do my absolute best and to make myself, my family and GB proud.

“Overall as it’s my first really big competition I want to be able to have loads of fun and be able to learn a lot from it and make new friends. I’m hyped to be able to see all the other athletes and watch them stomp it!

“I want to take my snowboarding as far as it can go and represent GB in snowboard cross, slopestyle and half pipe – that’s my dream. I’d love to be able to travel the world competing in as many events as possible and having fun every step of the way.”