SNOW SPORTS AWINNING RUN
eam GB came back from the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics on a high, with Jenny Jones winning our fi rst ever medal on snow, Lizzy Yarnold taking gold and continu-
ing Britain’s winning streak in skeleton, plus a silver and bronze in curling. As well as Jones’ bronze, the British freestyle skiing and snowboarding team had a record breaking perfor- mance, with six top 10 fi nishes. After fi nishing a respectable 19th in the medal table, Team GB is hoping for even more in South Korea at the next Olympics in 2018. Meetings are now underway with UK Sport and offi cials from British winter Olympic disciplines about performance targets over the next four years. The resulting spending decisions will be announced in June. Six sports shared a fund of £13.4m
over the past four years, but that’s likely to be boosted for the 2018 Games. “Following so many outstand- ing performances in Sochi, I anticipate
TEAM GB’S success at the Winter Olympics has proven Britain can do winter sports. Kath Hudson finds out how we can build on this and nurture tomorrow’s talent
that there will be an increase in our investment into winter sports,” says Liz Nicholl, UK Sport’s chief execu- tive. “The success has shown that the approach we’ve taken to athletes, sup- porting sports with medal prospects, is working. It gives us a huge amount of confi dence in the system. We’re antici- pating building on this success and will be going for more medals in 2018.”
SLOPESTYLE For years Team GB didn’t trouble the podium at the Winter Olympics much. Lack of mountains and snow were often blamed, but while our geography hasn’t changed, our performance has. Slopestyle debuted at Sochi this
year; this is a sport which doesn’t rely
on mountains, as the basics can be learned and practised at indoor snow centres or on dry ski slopes. The snow- boarding team – Jenny Jones, Aimee Fuller, Jamie Nicholls and Billy Morgan – all started out on their local slopes. The growing number of indoor snow centres in the UK has helped to narrow the gulf between Britain and countries with mountains, by giving more people access to snowboarding. Many of the skills for slopestyle can also be practised in the UK. “British snowboarders tend to be very good on rails, as these can be perfected under cover. And indoor snow centres have the advantage of being available all year round,” says Snowsport England’s chief executive, Tim Fawkes. Also, slopestyle is a sport where skills learned in other sports and dis- ciplines can fast-track those who have talent. “Billy Morgan comes from a
Jenny Jones on the rail at Snow Factor; Tim Fawkes (right)
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