to wonder why some winter sports are funded?

[DDfollowed]

I love watching sport but I cannot work out why British athletes in minority sports are funded to compete. We spend millions sending a handful of people to the winter Olympics to finish in the teen positions and I genuinely can't work out why, the majority of children are not in a position to be inspired to become a winter sport athlete. Is it just funding a small number of people to live their dreams when it doesn't pay them enough (via prize or sponsorship) to support themselves? Would the money be better spent on getting more people active?

Funding for winter sports is really low. The most funded winter sports have been the ones where GB has traditionally done well, like skeleton and curling. For the rest, it's chicken feed.

Massive assumption that the winter sports are funded. IME the athletes have to fund-raise and get sponsorship for themselves or their teams. There isn’t a government-funded pot for all sports. In one sport that was introduced to the Winter Olympics fairly recently, all the equipment had to be home-made by the athletes, or their team-mates!

In the last Olympic cycle, UK sport have given short track speed skating £4.8m, figure skating £1.2m, ski and snowboard £5.1m and bobsleigh £5m compared to skeleton getting £6.5m and curling £5.4m. It's hardly peanuts...

You could ask the same about some of the Summer Olympic sports, which are also minority sports in the UK. I don't have an issue with sports people that have qualified for their Olympic spot through previous competition. I also think that sending athletes in the quota places can be a good idea, for some athletes, to gain experience to benefit future competition performance and so on.

Really, all elite (unpaid) sport falls into the same category. Why spend anything at all on any of the Olympics, Commonwealth, Worlds, Europeans, etc etc when it could all be spent on getting the general population active? But, it is not a huge amount of expenditure, much of it from the National Lottery, compared to other government spending. If we do well and win more medals than expected, very few people complain and there is national enjoyment in the successes.

So that's about 30M, over at least four years, so 600k ish per month? That really isn't much when you look at the number of competitors / coaches / equipment / training facilities needed. Most athletes in the Winter Olympics seem to have jobs to fund training or sponsors from what I've been reading.

That wouldn't even make a dent into getting more people active, and you're disregarding the number of people who watch the Olympic Games and get motivated to try something new!

I suppose that is true of the Summer Olympics sports too @RoseslnTheHospital but it does tend to get a lot more coverage than the Winter Olympics so it is a slightly more understandable rationale and we do probably have better access to facilities to develop talent in these sports.

@ohhooh I was thinking about that because even if I wanted to give curling a go, I'd have a long drive to Scotland to find the nearest facilities. Or have a lot of money to give skiing a go compared to non-Winter Olympic sports.

I think we should plough more money into curling. Get some more curling rinks outside Scotland as that's our best hope.

Most other countries seem to put all their focus on one discipline

@popcorndiva this is something I definitely agree with. The reason why some countries dominate at certain sports (particularly winter) is due to the culture around it and access to the conditions and facilities (not 100% but definitely a contributing factor to success)

[quote DDfollowed]@ohhooh I was thinking about that because even if I wanted to give curling a go, I'd have a long drive to Scotland to find the nearest facilities. Or have a lot of money to give skiing a go compared to non-Winter Olympic sports.[/quote]
I think then that more money into winter Olympic sports would help - that could build more training facilities that can also be used by the local public too! Having given curling a go, I have so much respect for their knees and balance (I fell over so many times) 😂

There are curling rinks in England and Wales -

www.trycurling.com/join/find-a-rink/

[quote DDfollowed]@ohhooh I was thinking about that because even if I wanted to give curling a go, I'd have a long drive to Scotland to find the nearest facilities. Or have a lot of money to give skiing a go compared to non-Winter Olympic sports.[/quote]
You realise that Scotland is in the UK?

There are several curling rinks near me, and several people I know play for amateur teams.

There are ice rinks in most cities, along with ice hockey teams.

Most of Scotland is within an hour or two of one or more ski centres, and lots of people (including down south) go skiing on a regular basis.

Far more people compete in these sports than e.g. track cycling.

I have looked for curling and here are the nearest centres to me. That cuts out a fast majority of the south central and south west of England. 102 miles to the nearest one! My 5 year old loves watching curling and would love to give it a go (to be honest I think it's the shoes that slide on the ice) but not when it's so far away.

We don't have any ice rinks near us either. Nearest one is about 50 miles away.

We are talking about England only having 3 rinks. Then if you want to play against other teams it usually involves travelling to Scotland.

I would give it a go but the nearest rink is 2 hours away

Why do we fund anything like arts sports etc. Because we value it.

Apparently Eddie the Eagle lived in a mental hospital to save money to achieve his dream

They have a cultural value. Not everything has to be profitable or tangible.

There's more point in funding ski-jumping or bobsleigh than dozens of other sports (and "sports") like gymnastics or pole vaulting or the triple jump. At least winter sports are interesting, I mean any idiot can ride a bike round and round in circles or thrown an unnecessarily heavy object a short distance.

Generally, a sport isn't a sport unless people die doing it. Without risk and danger it's just a game.

Yeah. I'm not suggesting that there's widespread availability of curling in England, Wales. NI. Just that it isn't only Scotland where you can try curling.

Apparently floor curling is a thing, doesn't require ice!

The more sports people are aware of the more likely it is that people will find their niche and the motivation to exercise and get fitter for the sake of that sport.

I don't enjoy any of the mainstream sports or the classic school team sports, found my niche in fencing and have become generally more active as a result...

Most sports (other than bobsleigh and skeleton) have a grassroots/amateur scene which help support the performance programmes, even if relatively small.

I think this Olympics is tougher than most because of the impacts of the lockdowns and travel restrictions - so our athletes have had a tougher time training than in a normal Olympic cycle. Some of it comes down to "luck" or tiny mistakes - Dave Ryding was in contention on the first run until he made a mistake - bigger names than him had their issues - Shiffrin of the USA as well as members of the "big" teams.

There's no climate based reason we don't do well at short track, ice hockey or figure skating - investment in facilities would work long term, but most sports funding is pretty short term...

@CaptainMerica I'm not sure what I've said to give you the impression I wasn't aware Scotland is in the UK

A couple of curling rinks in the UK outside Scotland does not make it an accessible sport for 60m people to give it a go.

It just seems that in this day and age the lottery system enables a few select people to pursue their sporting ambitions, I don't think there is a huge amount of value in spending £30m for mediocre results in most winter sports.

I just looked at the curling centre quite near me. To the best of my knowledge, it's an entirely commercial venture. It says it's completely wheelchair-friendly so perhaps it's a sport which should be encouraged and supported for accessibility reasons. It seems like a much more practical proposition to support than outdoors winter sports such as skiing.

Curling deserves every penny. It's so good to watch. Been late for work too many times recently!!

[quote DDfollowed]@CaptainMerica I'm not sure what I've said to give you the impression I wasn't aware Scotland is in the UK

A couple of curling rinks in the UK outside Scotland does not make it an accessible sport for 60m people to give it a go.

It just seems that in this day and age the lottery system enables a few select people to pursue their sporting ambitions, I don't think there is a huge amount of value in spending £30m for mediocre results in most winter sports.[/quote]
Saying that we shouldn't fund curling because it's only.popular in Scotland is like saying we shouldn't fund sailing because lots of people don't live anywhere near the coast.

Don't get me wrong, most sport is completely elitist and winter sports on particular has lots of examples where the medal goes to the person with the most money to spend.

However, the examples you used - snowboarding and ice-ring based sports - happen to be the sports that I am most exposed to in winter. E.g. I, and lots of people I know, take DC ice skating, go snowboarding, watch/play curling, etc. So I don't see why they are less deserving than any other sport.

Funding for GB Olympic sports seems to follow past Olympic successes. Some sports delivered in Tokyo (Equestrian £12m -5 medals incl. 2 golds); others didn’t (Hockey £12m - 1 bronze).