Britain’s Olympic alpine team could be forced to give up their skis due to funding cuts just months after Charlie Guest achieved Britain’s best result for a woman on the World Cup slalom tour in 33 years.
Dave Ryding, flag-bearer at this year’s Beijing Winter Games, and Guest are among five athletes who have been told their discipline would be dropped from the world-class program. According to UK Sport, WCP funds are allocated to national governing bodies to “support sports and athletes with realistic Olympic medal opportunities”.
Without that support, the group will now have to raise £800,000 to cover the shortfall over the next two months when the current cycle ends.
“My stomach just dropped,” Guest said. “I’m a skier, I’m very used to raising money, finding money, finding sponsors, but having to find hundreds of thousands was something that… I was just like, ‘I don’t know how I can do that.’ “
Guest was part of the British team that finished fifth in the first-ever Olympic mixed-team alpine competition in Pyeongchang in 2018, lifting slalom gold in Kitzbuehel just weeks before he was chosen to carry his country’s flag. Guest said it was a testament to what her team could achieve.
“There are many moments when you think, ‘Why am I doing this? I should just go home, I could just graduate, I could just get a job or whatever. And then you have a good race and you start thinking, ‘Yeah, I actually love that. I’m so proud to be part of this team,'” she said.
GB Snowsport said: “A significant part [of the £11.9m allocated to them for the Paralympic and Olympic programmes] is earmarked for World Class Program funding, which we may only spend on programs deemed eligible by UK Sport for WCP investment.
Brit Dave Ryding competes in the men’s slalom at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics. Photo: Michael Kappeler/PA Wire/DPA/PA
“Alpine, Cross-Country and Para Nordic were not deemed WCP eligible this cycle.”
UK Sport expressed sympathy for the alpine athletes but agreed that the organization’s WCP funding priorities had shifted.
“UK Sport aspires to become an ever-growing force in winter sports while promoting a wider range of sports and champions that reflect the diversity of British society,” it said in a statement.
GB Snowsport has made an official appeal to UK Sport and hopes to have a decision by October. That might be too late for Guest and her teammates as the current funding cycle ends at the end of September.
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