Skeleton has been awarded £4,785,035 of World Class Programme funding to support their campaign towards the Milan-Cortina Olympic Games in 2026.
This funding follows on from the £24.2 million which was allocated to eight winter sports in July and means that nine sports will now receive investment compared to six during the previous Beijing cycle.
These nine sports will share almost £29m, with a further £5million of National Lottery funding available to support athletes across the sports with their living and sporting costs via Athlete Peformance Awards.
Dr Kate Baker, Director of Perfomance at UK Sport said: “I’m delighted to be able to confirm this funding in British Skeleton for the coming four year Olympic cycle. Skeleton has been one of the British winter sport success stories of the past two decades and we are excited to continue to support the programme towards 2026.
“We’ve previously stated our strategic ambition to invest in a broader range of sports and today’s investment helps us continue to deliver on that. Skeleton has a rich tradition of successfully transferring talented athletes from other sports and creating role models in our system. We are looking forward to seeing that continue as the athletes kick off a new winter season in the coming weeks.”
“We’d like to thank UK Sport for their continued support and belief in the skeleton programme,” said Natalie Dunman, British Skeleton’s Performance Director.
“We have worked closely with UK Sport throughout what has been a thorough investment process and we are pleased to enter the Milan-Cortina cycle with a shared understanding of what it takes to deliver success at the highest level and the challenges and opportunities the next four years present.
“We have a talented and committed team of athletes and staff and we are looking forward to getting back out on ice and working hard in the pursuit of our ambitions.”
The Milan-Cortina investment cycle formally starts on 1 October 2022.