UK Sport focussed on maintaining success following ground-breaking Sochi

UK Sport has praised the historic performance of Team GB at Sochi 2014 and committed to building on the success of a landmark Winter Olympics.

• An historic four medals ensured Sochi 2014 equalled the most successful Winter Olympic Games in history for Great Britain.
• UK Sport's agreed target of at least three medals at Sochi 2014 achieved
• Five of the sports who benefitted from the record £13.4m investment for Sochi met their agreed performance target
• Curling and Skeleton achieved the top of their performance range with two medals and a gold medal respectively

Sochi was the first Winter Olympics where the funded sports reported in to UK Sport’s widely admired "Mission" process in the same way the summer sports do. This rigorous monitoring helps track progress against agreed targets and provides the rapid strategic support necessary for the sports and athletes to achieve their potential.

Liz Nicholl, Chief Executive of UK Sport: "Sochi has been an historic Winter Olympics for sport in Great Britain. These games will be remembered as a step change in the way we can compete against the rest of the world in targeted winter disciplines.

"The inspirational performances we have witnessed in Sochi have captured the public’s imagination, just as so many of our Summer athletes did in London in 2012.

"We now have a fantastic opportunity to build on the medal success and the evidence of future potential. With 13 Great Britain performances achieving a top eight finish in Sochi it is clear the Winter sports are becoming ever more competitive and it has been terrific to see that many of these successful athletes are so young.

"We know that our approach to building a stronger and more sustainable performance system works. We know what to do and we’ll waste no time in doing it. We will maintain the momentum on the journey to PyeongChang 2018."

"UK Sport is committed to supporting every athlete who can demonstrate the realistic potential to win a medal in either 2018 or 2022 and following so many outstanding performances in Sochi I anticipate that there will be an increase in our investment in to winter sports.

"These results further reinforce the effectiveness of our approach and the partnerships that drive success in world class sport; our investment, the athletes and sports, coaching support, talent identification campaigns and the very best in sports science, medicine and technology delivered via the home nation Institutes. Add to that the role of the British Olympic Association leading Team GB so well into the Olympic arena and it’s a winning formula."

Planning for PyeongChang 2018 is already well underway with sports submitting their outline business cases last year. Final submissions will be made to the UK Sport investment panel in May with decisions taken in July 2014 to allow sports to continue to build on their success from Sochi 2014.

PERFORMANCE ANNEXE