Feb18201012:53 a.m.
The Olympic Winter of discontent
The Winter Olympics doesn't in any way generate the same sort of excitement as the Summer Olympics - at least not in the UK. Maybe that's due to the fact that as a nation we are pretty hopeless - bringing in just 21 medals since the first Winter Games in 1924.
So how much of this is down inadequate facilities and lack of funding? It's a fact that funding for the country's winter Olympians is a fraction of that given to their summer. Just £6.5 million has been given since the last Winter Games in Turin in 2006. Compare this with the £261 million being invested in athletes for London 2012 and you get an idea of the scale of the problem facing our Winter Olympians - the funding they receive wouldn't be enough to pay Emmanuel Adebayor's wages for the season.
Public profile for our Winter Olympians isn't great. If I asked you to name any of our famous Winter Olympians either past or present, I'm sure most of you would struggle beyond the names Torvill and Dean, Eddie 'the Eagle' Edwards, or maybe even former-skier Alain Baxter, who is now trying to carve out a career as a track cyclist.
Team GB was set a three medal target by UK Sport, a figure that has not been achieved since 1936. Four years ago, Team GB came away with just a silver medal, won by Shelley Rudman in skeleton, and it's not looking like it's going to be better this time round, with many of our potential medallists failing to deliver so far.
So, it's highly unlikely that the next generation of talent are going to be inspired by our under-funded, under-achieving Winter Olympians, who probably in all reality consider it a major achievement just to make it to Vancouver given the lack of assistance they generally receive along the way. That's the chilling reality facing our Winter Olympians and prospects for the future.
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Comments (4)
onthefloor04 'probably doesn;t help that even the 'proper' olympics are now jammed full of sports that shouldn't be a part of the olympic schedule, so when you start adding more events with points for artistic merit it lessens the calibre of the event.' added 18th Feb 2010
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Johnf 'I think it very much a cultural thing Simon, the major factor, this damned winter aside, it doesn't snow in England. Ok the Scottish Highlands gets some, and probably most of the top 10 UK skiers will be from Scotland, but its just not enough people to generate competition and champions. The costs of support if you wanted to keep athletes in the places they need to be to train must be phenomenal. I used to go travel to Norway a lot in the 80s and skied quite a bit in Norway and Sweden and I can still see the faces of the 5 years old as they skied circles round me as I was prone on the ground looking like I was trying to eat the mountain! Why can't that old bloke ski? When Norway, Austria, Switzerland or any other winter holiday destination country beats us at cricket, that'll be the day we need to take some action! We haven't lost to any of them yet have we?' added 18th Feb 2010
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twammers 'I think one of the other problems is the high cost of paticipation - skis, sleds, clothing are all VERY expensive and this is compounded by the fact that to practice any of these events involves going abroad at great expense to find the right conditions and facilities. I had a chance to try curling a few years ago, but I even had to travel 'abroad' for this as the facilities were at the UK training centre near Aberfoyle in Scotland, Scotland probably being one of the most costly winter sports venues in the world. It seems odd that the last time I went skiing it was cheaper to go to Italy for 2 weeks rather than consider even 1 week in Scotland (especially as there was no guarantee of snow). Basically most 'winter sports' fit into the 'elitest' category available only to those who can either afford them or who are clever enough to access limited grant funds, which ultimately won't get you very far. I'd rather be successful at the main events in the summer olympics and enjoy whatever we can manage at the winter games without worrying about the medal haul.' added 21st Feb 2010
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Simon_Doyle 'Good to see that my post prompted Amy Williams to win Britain's first solo Winter Olympics gold medal for 30 years with victory in the women's skeleton. If there's on thing guaranteed with writing this blog is that a few days in sport can make all the difference and end up making your words look very out of date. ' added 22nd Feb 2010
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