Winter sports given cash boost to build on medal successes

Medal success by British ski, snowboard and wheelchair curling athletes at world championship level is to be rewarded with increased funding in the run up to the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and Paralympics, UK Sport has announced.

Britain's para skiers and snowboarders picked up nine medals at the 2019 Para Alpine World Championships, including two golds for Menna Fitzpatrick and her guide Jen Kehoe. The success will see an additional £748,000 of funding devoted to this programme before 2022.

Almost £1.3m in additional funding is to go to ski and snowboard athletes in the new Olympic discipline of Ski Big Air, along with Half Pipe and Snowboard Cross.

For the wheelchair curlers, who clinched a silver medal at the World Championships, there will be an extra £937,000 made available.

Decisions on this funding were made as part of the Winter Sport Annual Review by UK Sport. Aside from winter games, another sport to receive additional funding is para taekwondo, where the UK has, in Matt Bush, the current world champion. The sport will get an additional £144,000 in the run up to Tokyo 2020.

Chelsea Warr, director of performance at UK Sport, said the recent successes of these sports had demonstrated "compelling cases" for the investments, adding: "These awards are intended to support our efforts to build on our most successful Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games in Pyeongchang last year."