GB Snowsport Blocked from Olympic Programme Amid Governance Review

UK Sport, the organisation that funds British Olympic athletes, has decided to stop sending money through GB Snowsport for the next four years. Instead, it will pay athletes directly while it looks into how GB Snowsport is being run. The move comes just six months after Team GB had its best-ever Winter Olympics at Milano-Cortina, Italy. UK Sport says it still wants British skiers and snowboarders to succeed at the 2030 Winter Games in the Alps.

UK Sport has promised a record £33 million in total for British winter sports. Of that, £12.5 million is set aside for ski and snowboard athletes and their Paralympic teammates over the next four years. That is the biggest single share of the total pot. The bobsleigh and skeleton programme will receive £10.1 million, the second-largest amount. UK Sport says it will keep paying athlete grants directly until a new system is set up, with more details expected before the end of the year.

GB Snowsport has struggled with leadership in recent years, having changed its chair, or top leader, twice in just three years. Right now, a man named Michael Osterlin is serving as the temporary chair. GB Snowsport said it was 'disappointed' by the funding decision but promised to keep working with UK Sport on the issues. The organisation also said it wants to make sure that the success British snowsport athletes built over the past four years is not lost.

GB Snowsport pushed back on the idea that it has a governance problem. The organisation said it had already finished its own independent review of how it is run. It stated that the review 'confirmed that our governance standards remain strong and appropriate.' GB Snowsport added that it looks forward to taking part in any new review and believes it will reach the same conclusion.

UK Sport also announced a new organisation called Sport Org, which will run elite sports programmes in certain sports. The curling and wheelchair curling programmes already use Sport Org. The British Bobsleigh and Skeleton Association will also move its programmes to Sport Org before the 2034 Winter Games in Utah. Sport Org is meant to bring better organisation and results to sports that need extra support.

In other funding news, Ice Hockey UK will receive £445,000 to help the sport become more financially independent. UK Sport says this is the first time a grant like this has been given to ice hockey in Britain. The money is meant to help the sport rely less on government funding in the future. It is part of a broader effort to make British winter sports stronger at every level.