UK Sport Restructures Olympic Snowsport Funding, Cuts Out GB Snowsport

Team Great Britain is fresh off its most successful Winter Olympics in history. Its athletes took home five medals, including an unprecedented three golds. One of them was Team GB’s first-ever gold medal in a snow sport, coming in the snowboard cross mixed team event. But as Team GB prepares for the 2030 Olympics, the way skiing and snowboarding are funded in the United Kingdom is getting a shake-up.

On August 4, UK Sport announced it would no longer be investing in skiing and snowboarding through GB Snowsport, the national governing body for skiing and snowboarding in the United Kingdom. The announcement comes after UK Sport announced a record investment of more than £33 million into winter sports for the four-year cycle, including £12.5 million of funding for skiing and snowboarding athletes and coaches ahead of the 2030 Alpes Olympics.

Now, UK Sport is searching for an alternative funding mechanism outside of GB Snowsport to provide the guaranteed £12.5 million. While UK Sport wants to assure athletes of its “full commitment to them ahead of Alpes 2030,” a new funding mechanism outside of GB Snowsport has not yet been confirmed.

“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 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.”

While UK Sport stopped short of saying it had lost confidence in GB Snowsport, its decision to bypass the governing body, guarantee funding directly to athletes, and commission a governance review signals serious concerns over the organization’s future role. Instead of trusting the organization to manage Olympic funding as it previously did, UK Sport is now searching for a completely different model, raising questions about trust between UK Sport and GB Snowsport.

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GB Snowsport released a statement in response to the decision, saying it was “disappointed,” but that it will continue to work with UK Sport as it searches for a new means of funding skiing and snowboarding in the United Kingdom. However, the statement also says that GB Snowsport reserves “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.”

As the national governing body for skiing and snowboarding in Great Britain, GB Snowsport manages the programs that select and lead teams for international competitions, World Cups, and the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games. It oversees coaching, athlete development, and daily operations of the country’s elite ski and snowboard programs. Losing funding significantly impacts GB Snowsport’s role as an Olympic pathway, as it can no longer distribute funds between programs to support athletes and coaches preparing for the Olympics. Under a new funding mechanism, snowsport athletes and coaches will still receive their guaranteed £12.5 million in funding — it just will not come from GB Snowsport.

Losing funding is not the first big change GB Snowsport has dealt with recently. In just the past three years, GB Snowsport has changed its chair twice. Michael Osterlin – a non-executive director at the organization – is currently serving as the interim chair. Its quick leadership turnarounds have led the organization to conduct governance reviews of its standards.

“We have recently concluded an independent governance review funded by UK Sport, which has confirmed that our governance standards remain strong and appropriate,” GB Snowsport said in its statement. “We look forward to engaging fully and robustly in any new review, which we are confident will reach the same conclusions.

While GB Snowsport expressed disappointment in response to the decision, Snowsport Scotland released their own statement, seemingly being okay with the new direction of UK Sport. 

“We welcome UK Sport’s clear commitment to snowsport and, importantly, the confirmation that £12.5 million has been ringfenced to support athletes, coaches and performance programmes through to the Alpes 2030 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games,” Snowsport Scotland wrote. 

It also expressed interest in helping UK Sport in its search for a new funding mechanism: “Snowsport Scotland will play a constructive role in those discussions and will strongly represent the needs of Scottish athletes and the pathway that supports them,” Chair of Snowsport Scotland Gavin Thomson said.

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For snow sports in Great Britain, the results of the 2026 Olympics marked a huge step forward. It helped push UK Sport to invest heavily in skiing and snowboarding, with the two sports receiving the largest slice of the £33m pool. Bobsled and skeleton will receive the second-highest amount of funding, with £10.1m guaranteed.

“Milan Cortina showed what British winter sport is capable of, with incredible performances across more sports than ever before, our best-ever Winter Olympic medal haul and a nation gripped by the amazing feats of our athletes,” Kate Baker, Director of Performance and People at UK Sport, said.

But despite the success, UK Sport decided it would find an alternative route to fund Team Great Britain’s Olympic and Paralympic skiers and snowboarders. While UK Sport has not yet announced a new funding mechanism for skiing and snowboarding in the United Kingdom, it is expected to be announced by the end of this year.