GB Snowsports Left Unfunded as UK Sports Boosts Winter Olympics Cash
- Henry
- 2 days ago
- 4 min read
UK Sport has recently announced a record investment of more than £33 million into the UK’s Olympic and Paralympic winter sport athletes, supporting their preparations for Alpes 2030.
The record investment, made possible thanks to sustained investment by The National Lottery and the UK Government, is accompanied by bold reform to the UK’s winter sport system to maximise performance success and protect public money. It is designed to support the UK’s next generation of winter Olympic and Paralympic athletes to achieve their potential at another Winter Games on European soil in 2030.
Today’s announcement reflects UK Sport’s belief that whilst Milan Cortina marked an historic moment for British winter sport, the current British winter sport cohort have even more potential for Alpes 2030, which they must be supported to achieve if the UK is to cement its position as an ever-greater force in winter sport.
Team GB equalled its best ever Winter Olympic medal haul in Milan Cortina, winning five medals including three golds, the first time Britain has won more than one gold medal at a single Winter Games. Meanwhile, ParalympicsGB returned with a single silver medal and provided a talented group of athletes with their crucial first Paralympic experience.
However, the Games also represented the third time in four Winter Olympic Games that Team GB has won five medals, with British athletes returning a record number of top-10 finishes.
This indicates that there is greater potential amongst the UK’s winter athlete cohort, and that more needs to be done to make the most of that potential. It shows that the opportunity is now there for the UK’s winter sports to kick on, helping more athletes to deliver their best performances when it matters most at the Games.
UK Sport is investing more than ever in athletes and is prepared to reform how support is delivered where necessary to enable them to reach their potential. While investment is critical, the Milan Cortina Games showed that achieving truly historic success at future Winter Games will also require innovation and bold reform. This approach of challenging traditional ways of thinking about performance has been crucial to UK Sport’s approach over more than 25 years and today marks the next step on that journey. With this in mind, UK Sport has supported the creation of Sport Org, a new, specialist, multi-sport performance delivery organisation established to operate performance programmes on behalf of National Governing Bodies. By bringing more of the UK's leading performance experts and resources together, Sport Org aims to provide greater stability for athletes, drive efficiencies in how money is spent, enable greater access to performance expertise and, ultimately, better support athletes to succeed on the world stage.
The Curling and Wheelchair Curling Programmes are already being delivered by Sport Org and this will continue into the Alpes 2030 Cycle. UK Sport has now agreed with the British Bobsleigh and Skeleton Association (BBSA) that, whilst their programmes will continue to be delivered through BBSA for the Alpes 2030 Cycle, they will transition into Sport Org for the Utah 2034 Cycle.Meanwhile, the £445,000 in transition funding that Ice Hockey will receive is the first investment of its kind. It is designed to support plans to develop a more commercially sustainable performance model within the sport.
Independent Review to Be Launch
Separately, UK Sport will be commissioning an independent review into the governance of GB Snowsport.
UK Sport has immense belief and confidence in the current cohort of British snowsport athletes, and their coaches, who achieved the historic performances seen at the 2026 Milan Cortina Games. The future potential of this group has led to the UK Sport Board allocating a £12.5m investment into their success for the Alpes 2030 cycle. The UK Sport Board has decided not to route the investment for snowsport through GB Snowsport once funding for the Milan Cortina cycle ends, instead delivering funding directly to coaches and athletes.
In a statement, GB snowsports responded that they are
“disappointed by UK Sport’s decision to propose an alternative investment route for snowsport funding for the 2030 Olympic and Paralympic cycle.
We are hugely proud of everything that we have achieved over the past four years, not least the remarkable medal successes on the international stage culminating in Britain’s greatest ever Olympic Winter Games on snow in Milan-Cortina. Our athletes, staff, and sports have achieved incredible things on and off snow over recent years, and we firmly believe the system we have built together remains the most effective way to continue to support Britain’s snowsport athletes.”
This news comes off the back of reduced funding after Beijing 2022 – just weeks after Dave Ryding’s historic gold at the Kitzbühel. Since then, GB Snowsports has evolved with the Alpine 100 scheme, a chance for business and individuals to fund athletes and coaches via a lottery programme.
GB Snowsports added:
“We have recently concluded an independent governance review funded by UK Sport, which has confirmed that our governance standards remain strong and appropriate. We look forward to engaging fully and robustly in any new review, which we are confident will reach the same conclusions.”
