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8 hours ago
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UK Sport has withdrawn all funding from GB Snowsport for the next Olympic cycle, after commissioning an independent review into the organisation’s governance.
The news comes just six months after Team GB recorded their most successful Winter Olympics at Milano-Cortina and at the same time as record levels of funding were confirmed for British winter sport and parasport athletes before the Alpes 2030 Games.
UK Sport has guaranteed £12.5m to fund coaches and athletes across ski and snowboard events, and their Paralympic equivalents, over the next four years. This is the largest share of a total pool of £33m for winter sports, ahead of the £10.1m guaranteed to bobsleigh and skeleton. But while UK Sport said it wanted to assure athletes of “our full commitment to them ahead of Alpes 2030”, a new funding mechanism outside of GB Snowsport is yet to be confirmed, with an announcement expected before the end of the year.
“The UK Sport Board has decided not to route the investment for snowsport through GB Snowsport once funding for the Milan Cortina cycle ends,” a statement from the funding body said. “UK Sport has written today to all funded snowsport athletes to make them aware of this decision, to affirm our full commitment to them ahead of Alpes 2030 and to commit to continue paying athletes grants directly into the new cycle whilst we address these challenges. Separately, UK Sport will be commissioning an independent review into the governance of GB Snowsport.”
GB Snowsport has changed chair twice in the past three years, with Michael Osterlin – a non-executive director at the organisation – currently operating in the role in an interim capacity. The body said it was “disappointed” at the funding decision and while they promised to continue to work with UK Sport on governance matters, “we reserve the right to keep all options open to ensure that the achievements of the past four years are not lost as we approach another European Games.”
In a statement released to the Guardian, GB Snowsport also said it had already completed another independent review into governance within the organisation. “We have recently concluded an independent governance review funded by UK Sport, which has confirmed that our governance standards remain strong and appropriate,” it said. “We look forward to engaging fully and robustly in any new review, which we are confident will reach the same conclusions.”
UK Sport also confirmed the creation of a “specialist, multisport performance delivery organisation”, to be known as Sport Org, which will take over the running of elite programmes in certain sports. The curling and wheelchair curling programme is already operated by Sport Org and it has been announced that the British Bobsleigh and Skeleton Association will transfer its programmes to the new vehicle before Utah 2034. In 2022 Joanna Poulton resigned as the BBSA chair over plans to create an organisation along the lines of Sport Org, calling it “laughable” and “naive”.
The director of performance and people at UK Sport, Dr Kate Baker, said: “Competition across Olympic and Paralympic winter sport is only getting stronger, which is why it’s more important than ever that we invest where we can have the biggest impact. It is also why we are not afraid of driving the change needed to give our athletes the very best chance of success. The investments we are announcing today, alongside the reform we are driving in the system, will enable us to do exactly that.”
In further funding news Ice Hockey UK is to receive £445,000 to help support the sport’s planned transition into a more commercially sustainable form. UK Sport says this is the first funding of its kind in the country.
