A gold and bronze medal at the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics was Team GB’s best haul on snow, beating the two bronze medals at PyeongChang in 2018.
That has resulted in an increase of funding for Britain’s ski, snowboard and Para snowsport athletes to £12.5 million for the next Olympic cycle.
GB Snowsport will not distribute athlete funding
However, GB Snowsport will not receive that funding directly.
Sport UK confirmed today that the money will be distributed through a new delivery model rather than via GB Snowsport.
UK Sport says this is intended to ensure that athletes continue to receive uninterrupted support while governance issues are addressed.
New funding structure to be confirmed later this year
The new structure is expected to be confirmed later this year.
UK Sport’s concerns appear to be about GB Snowsport’s governance as it has commissioned an independent governance review, and until that process is complete has decided not to channel World Class Programme funding through the national governing body.
GB Snowsport has responded by expressing its disappointment with the decision and that it ‘reserves the right to keep all options open’. It’s unclear if that means potential legal action to challenge the change in funding.
UK Sport has used Sport Org to oversee elite curling programmes, and that model is also being extended to bobsleigh and skeleton.
Presumably, if GB Snowsport is not channelling the funding, its raison d’être ceases to exist and the body will close and be replaced by the ‘alternative delivery organisation’.
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