How do people in the U.K. get their children into winter sport?

[Mrsknackered]

Was thinking about this today, we have been watching a lot of Winter Olympics this half term.

When you see people from team GB competing in the lesser known sports such as skeleton, and the one bowls on ice (I've completely forgotten the name) how on earth do they get into it?

Do they start out skiing? And then get scouted? I can't imagine where they find the places to train!

Bath university has a track that mimics the skeleton piste.

Live in Scotland (or Utah, - I’m looking at you Izzy!) Though there are clearly lots of non-Scots who progress,

There was a programme a few years ago where they took athletes who were just below the top of the game in their chosen sport and got them to do another (rowing to skeleton that type of thing). The idea is that people with the correct mental and physical make up will be good at multiple sports and can be poached (think how many footballers are scratch golfers ad how that person at your school who was a fab runner was also really good at hockey).

Lots of transferable skills and I think team GB is getting pretty good at identifying these and making it work.

Look at BBC sport or TEAM GB Olympics websites

Sure I saw a link to "get involved"

Someone was just telling me about the girl who won Bronze today has grown up in America her whole life so close to snow and the two sisters who are in the team Molly and Katie Summerhayes said there family took up sport at Sheffield centre. It must be a very expensive sport to get into

Bath University has a bobsleigh track, and they recruit from other sports. I believe Laura Deas was a modern pentathlete before being scouted for skeleton. Because of the way UK sports funding works, sports which have previously won a medal tend to get more funding and so there are more development opportunities for athletes.

There are some freestyle ski parks in the north, where most of our freestylers have come from. I believe it's the US team that has started scouting acrobats/gymnasts for snowboarding.

I do think really you have to live somewhere with the facilities though. Team GB seems to punch above our weight for a country without many natural pistes, but a lot of the really successful athletes come from countries where there is much more of a culture of winter sports- and so a much larger pool of potential athletes to chose from.

DD was scouted as an ex gymnast. She was invited to an open trial for freestyle skiing and snowboarding and then eventually made it through to the final 12 in the country. She was 14 at the time and the others seemed to be late teens to early/mid 20’s and at least 3 of them had already competed at olympics in other sports. One was a rhythmic gymnast and another a world champion tumbler. Only one or two were previously skiers. Three were selected from this group but can’t honestly tell you which ones

Scotland - curling is a normal thing up here, there are local clubs, it's on at all ice rinks, schools do taster sessions from primary etc.

I have seen people actually ice skating and curling on actual frozen lochs (or also ponds designed for the purpose) up here some winters - though you can't reliably do that, it requires a cold snap.

There are also lots of small local dry ski slopes - more here than the rest of the UK I think? Plus of course proper snow skiing.

I think you would definitely need to be wealthy to get into winter sports. My DC have been enjoying the winter olympics and asked if we could go to a snow dome to try snowboarding and tobogganing. There's one about an hour from us but would cost about £25 for an hour, so not something you could do on a regular basis unless you were well off. I hadn't realised they scouted from other sports though.

We're lucky enough to have an ice rink a few miles away - DD is starting lessons there after watching the olympics.

She's nowhere near young enough to have started in time to be good enough to compete. And she'd probably not want to put the amount of time in training either. You have to be seriously dedicated to your sport.

We did curling and skiing in PE in school and I know folk got scouted from there. Bog standard state school.

To be fair though, this was in the Frozen North of Scotland and there was a great local ice rink and dry ski slope. Curling is huge here!

I think a lot of people do get scouted from athletics as well

I watched the BBC showing the events today and they said something like Lizzy being an inspiration to girls everywhere and my immediate thoughts you mean an inspiration for RICH girls. Not everyone has the same opportunities.....

Curling is popular in Scotland. I've actually done it, it's fun.

There is curling at an ice rink in north east Wales and they have taster sessions coming up just after the winter Olympics.

I'd love to have a go at the 'lie on your back feet first sliding one' but I can't work out how on earth I would be able to see over my boobs. Another sporting dream bites the dust. 😂

I can drive to two ice rinks in 40 mins, one has skating, ice hockey & curling the other has skating, speed skating & curling
Or to artificial ski slopes in 40mins/20mins
Snow dome thing 40min
(Scotland- real snow is also available!)

We live within walking distance of an international standard curling rink in Scotland. Our school kids do curling as part of PE.!’n

Was watching today and it was recommended the Curling girls probably started from the the age of 9. So had years of experience.

And the Skelton was unheard of for someone to spend 2 terms x 4 yrs on the sport because of how much dedication it required and how much the skeleton training demands on your real life..

Lots of admiration here.. Nt a sporty person but love the winter olympics. Always seems that the atheletes are truely gifted and dedicated

Well, there are plenty opportunities to ski/snowboard and curling etc. My DD ski's on the dry slope and then we go up to the ski on the snow (when there's enough). They ski through school and also with us. There are a few ski centres up here to chose from. I know lots of people who ski/board. Curling is popular too and easy enough to give it a go. Skeleton, bobsleigh etc, I think are a little more specialised.

Perhaps depends where you live?

As bowling and curling seem to have a very similar scoring system I imagine it is easy to poach to curling. My daughter figure skates at a rink with curling which she loves watching after her training session.

Well... i was going to suggest trying a quicker/easier option :
Take dcs to top of mountain, launch dcs off said mountain head first with only a set of skis, if said dcs are standing up on said skis at bottom of mountain then said dcs are 100% into winter sports

Am not going to suggest that obv as i am much too busy trying to work out how to sign up to be a bobsled gin holder ... anybody know the way to said team scouts or captain please ?...

Having moved to Canada seven years ago I am now trying to learn winter sports. I am finally learning to ski at the age of 44. It’s fascinating to watch the little children (and I mean 2ish) learning to ski and snowboard.
The city I live in is hosting the Alberta Winter Games this weekend. Children between 11-17 doing biathlon, freestyle skiing, curling etc etc. Nice to think that some could be future Olympians.

It’s a bit ironic that the American with a Dad from Birmingham who won GB bronze today has never really spent any time here, certainly not skiing slope style, when the gold medalist Sarah Hoefflin for Switzerland lived here from 12 -22, went to Cardiff Uni and was a regular for Gloucester City Ladies hockey team! She only went pro 4 years ago and spent one season of that injured.

We are in Southern England and my eldest has just started curling club at school. He is really into it, and if it continued for several years we would definitely consider moving to Scotland so that he could pursue it.

a fair amount have dual nationalities from countries that that have extended winter seasons. most Asian skaters live and train in Canada. the Canadian medal winning speed skater is Dutch (and only immigrated 3 years ago).
doing upper level elite sports is very expensive and difficult to break into, having family in the know helps.

moose, generally by 11 certainly 17 those that are Olympic bound are already playing at a higher level and don't attend winter games.
so if you watch any of the events, the level of sport is fairly low.