Although Dave Ryding made history in January with his victory in the slalom on the Streif in Kitzbühel, GB Snowsport has now had to issue a statement after an overall mixed season with disappointing Winter Games, saying that “UK Sport have deemed the three disciplines [Alpine, Cross-Country and Para Nordic] not to be investible for World Class Programme funding.” While all three disciplines have been designated for potential funding at the national squad level, and UK Sport has allocated a minimal amount of program funding for the men’s slalom program and for Para Nordic, neither investment amount is sufficient to deliver peak performance at the required level, it said. GB Snowsport announced at the same time that it was now urgently looking at all other options to continue the federation’s programs for alpine, cross-country and Para-Nordic athletes, including new commercial partnerships, cost reductions across the organization and finding more efficiencies within the programs. However, the federation anticipates “that difficult decisions will need to be made in the coming weeks.” Also, GB Snowsport plans to appeal UK Sport’s decisions to relate and “understand” financial support for other sports, whether winter or summer, Olympic or Paralympic.

Topics