UK Sport will stop routing snowsport investment via GB Snowsport; athletes to continue receiving grants
On 4 August 2026, UK Sport said it will no longer channel investment in skiing and snowboarding through GB Snowsport and will instead find a new way to deliver £12.5m of funding to athletes and coaches before the 2030 Winter Olympics and Paralympics. UK Sport also wrote to all snowsport athletes who receive funding to make them aware of the decision and confirmed funding grants will continue to be paid directly.
The announcement follows Team GB's most successful Winter Olympics at Milan-Cortina six months earlier, where the nation won five medals including an unprecedented three golds and a gold in the snowboard cross mixed team event. Charlotte Bankes and Huw Nightingale won Team GB's first gold medal on snow at those Games. ParalympicsGB returned from Milan-Cortina with one silver. UK Sport said the change forms part of a record investment of more than £33m into winter sports for the four-year cycle, up from about £32.5m for the 2026 Winter Olympics and Paralympics cycle.
UK Sport has informed funded snowsport athletes directly about the decision and reiterated that their grants will continue to be paid. An independent review will now be set up into the governance of GBS. The organisation said it will find an alternative delivery route for the £12.5m earmarked for athletes and coaches ahead of 2030.
Kate Baker, director of performance and people at UK Sport, 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." She added: "It is also why we are not afraid of driving the change needed to give our athletes the very best chance of success."
In response, GB Snowsport said it was "disappointed" by the decision but will continue to work with UK Sport and "reserves the right to keep all options open to ensure that the achievements of the past four years are not lost". The body has changed its chair twice in the past three years and is currently advertising for a new chair. Michael Oesterlin, who has been a non-executive director at the organisation for four years, is interim chair.
The GBS statement added: "We have recently concluded an independent governance review funded by UK Sport, which has confirmed that our governance standards remain strong and appropriate. We look forward to engaging fully and robustly in any new review, which we are confident will reach the same conclusions."
From the wider investment announcement, about a third (£10m) will go to bobsleigh and skeleton, which provided two of Team GB's three gold medals at Milan-Cortina. Other allocations include curling (£6.54m), wheelchair curling (£1.93m), ice skating (£2m) and ice hockey, which will receive £445,000 in "transition funding". Tim Bratton, interim chief executive of Ice Hockey UK, said the money will be used to "transition into a self-sustainable governing body for our fantastic sport".
From 2030, funding for bobsleigh and skeleton programmes from UK Sport will be operated by a new "multi-sport delivery organisation" called Sport Org, which will operate elite performance programmes on behalf of governing bodies. Sport Org already oversees curling and wheelchair curling programmes and will take over from the British Bobsleigh & Skeleton Association (BBSA) in the run-up to Utah 2034, with the next Games to be held in the French Alps in 2030.