Winter Olympics: Changes required if GB are to enjoy future medal success

Zoe Gillings-Brier went to four Winter Olympics from 2006 to 2018. She has been a keen observer of the first Winter Games to progress without her in two decades but is concerned that the lack of medals won in Beijing represents a return to the barren days of British athletes turning up and not challenging for podium positions.

Only the men’s and women’s curling teams have rescued Team GB from leaving China empty-handed in a performance reminiscent of Games gone by.

In Albertville in 1992, GB left empty-handed and from then until Vancouver in 2010, medals were won at never more than two per Games. So when Team GB produced five medallists at both the Sochi 2014 and PyeongChang 2018 Games, it raised expectations of another medal haul in Beijing.

But the likes of snowboarder-cross world champion Charlotte Bankes, freestyle snowboarder Katie Ormerod and Kitzbuhel World Cup winner Dave Ryding have fallen short.

Gillings-Brier knows as well as anyone that sport is about what happens on the day and is not going to blame any individual for missing the podium.

But she does have genuine concerns about the future due to the structure of the pathway in some sports, particularly her own.

“We only had three snowboarders in total at these Games” begins Gillings-Brier. “Huw Nightingale and Charlotte Bankes in the bordercross and then Katie Ormerod in the freestyle.

“Given there’s more snowboarding events than there has ever been, and I’m sure we had more than three when I was there, that’s concerning.”

Bankes is not even home grown, she trained in France and switched to represent Great Britain three years ago.

She is one of just three in the GB Snowsport World Cup squad along with Nightingale and Maisie Potter, who was not selected for Beijing.

“We’ve got Charlotte right at the top of the sport, then we’ve got Huw and Maisie on the World Cup team and that is it for the entire official pathway in Britain,” said Gillings-Brier.

“There is no other GB snowsport team, there’s no snowsport England team, no snowsport Scotland team; there is no pathway for people to follow and that is a really big problem we’ve got in snowboard cross.”

Gillings-Brier – who used to be based in Leeds – runs a private snowboard programme in Austria with her husband and former coach Dan Brier, but neither that nor any other such initiatives have any affiliation with Snowsport GB.

She continued: “There used to be a pathway when me and Dan were involved and we were working with Snowsport England, Scotland and Wales, there was a pathway then. But they decided to go a different way.

“I’m running a company with 17 people on the programme, but there isn’t any official communication between GB Snowsport and private programmes, and that’s where the athletes are coming from. That’s where Huw came from, that’s where Maisie comes from. Every World Cup athlete we’ve had except Charlotte came through that way.

“So we do have athletes coming through there’s just no team for them to join, there’s no lower level, no official team to join in the British structure until you get to World Cup level, which is quite a jump.

“Imagine someone is watching the TV this week and they think ‘wow, bordercross, looks brilliant, how do I get into it? Is there a local team I can join, an English team, can I try a Welsh team?’

“There’s not an option until you get to World Cup level which is a massive jump.”

It means athletes, particularly snowboarders, are reliant on sponsors to get anywhere near World Cup level and British recognition. For Team GB to have any success in snowboarding in particular at the next Winter Olympics in Milan Cortina in 2026, something needs to change.

“There are some big questions to ask,” said Gillings-Brier. “We’ve been close a few times, it’s not like our athletes are coming bottom of the field.

“But after each Games it’s a good time to look at what’s working, what isn’t, how can we change things for the future.”