UK Sport withdraws GB Snowsport funding for next Olympic cycle amid governance review
On 4 August 2026 UK Sport announced it will not route investment for snowsport through GB Snowsport for the next Olympic cycle and said it will commission an independent review into the organisation’s governance. The funding body also stated it would continue paying athletes grants directly into the new cycle while alternative delivery arrangements are developed.
The decision comes as UK Sport confirmed a record £33m package for winter sports and parasport athletes, including a guaranteed £12.5m for coaches and athletes in ski and snowboard events and their Paralympic equivalents over the next four years, and £10.1m for bobsleigh and skeleton. UK Sport framed the move as part of reform ahead of Alpes 2030 and noted it followed Team GB’s most successful Winter Olympics at Milano‑Cortina six months earlier. The funding body said a new mechanism to deliver snowsport investment outside GB Snowsport has yet to be confirmed and that an announcement is expected before the end of the year.
In a formal statement UK Sport said: “The UK Sport Board has decided not to route the investment for snowsport through GB Snowsport once funding for the Milan Cortina cycle ends.” The statement added: “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.”
GB Snowsport said it was “disappointed” by the funding decision and confirmed Michael Osterlin, a non-executive director, is serving as interim chair after the organisation has changed chair twice in the past three years. The governing body also said it had already completed an independent governance review funded by UK Sport and stated: “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 added: “We look forward to engaging fully and robustly in any new review, which we are confident will reach the same conclusions.”
UK Sport announced the creation of a “specialist, multisport performance delivery organisation”, to be known as Sport Org, which will run elite programmes in certain sports. The curling and wheelchair curling programme is already operated by Sport Org, and UK Sport has said the British Bobsleigh and Skeleton Association will transfer its programmes to the new vehicle before Utah 2034. The 2022 resignation of Joanna Poulton as BBSA chair — when she described plans for a Sport Org‑style body as “laughable” and “naive” — was referenced in the discussion of the new structure.
Dr Kate Baker, UK Sport’s director of performance and people, 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. It is also why we are not afraid of driving the change needed to give our athletes the very best chance of success. The investments we are announcing today, alongside the reform we are driving in the system, will enable us to do exactly that.”
In other allocations, UK Sport confirmed Ice Hockey UK will receive £445,000 to support the sport’s planned transition into a more commercially sustainable form. The funding body said this was the first award of its kind in the country.
UK Sport has committed to continue paying athlete grants directly while it establishes alternative delivery arrangements and will complete an independent governance review of GB Snowsport; a decision on the new funding mechanism is expected before the end of the year.