Following a record medal haul at Sochi 2014, UK Sport today announced its investment plan for the Pyeongchang 2018 cycle, with £31 million ($53 million/€39 million) set to be spread across eight winter Olympic and Paralympic sports.

This figure is more than double the investment received by sports on the road to Sochi 2014, which was just over £14 million ($24 million/€18 million), and is hoped to contribute to yet another record medal haul for the Games in South Korea in four years' time.

"Our winter Olympic and Paralympic athletes performed exceptionally in Sochi," said UK Sport chief executive Liz Nicholl.

"Inspired by our summer teams' performances at London 2012, our winter athletes followed suit; proving that our UK system is working and we can create a nation of winners, with sustained funding from Government and The National Lottery invested strategically by UK Sport.

"The record £31 million investment announced today reflects the belief we have in the potential of our winter sports and athletes to make us proud again in four years' time in Pyeongchang, with yet more medal success."

British curling received a huge investment boost after the success of the men's and women's teams at Sochi 2014 ©Getty Images



Curling, skeleton, and ski and snowboard were the biggest winners in the investment review, with each sport gaining more than £3 million ($5 million/€4 million) of funding for the four-year cycle.

Curling was awarded just over £2 million ($2.5 million/€1.5 million) for Sochi 2014 and, after the British men and women won silver and bronze respectively, the sport has seen this figure rise to £5.3 million ($9.1 million/€6.7 million).

Following Lizzie Yarnold's gold medal success at Sochi, skeleton's funding for the four-year cycle has increased from around £3.4 million ($5.8 million/€4.2 million) to £6.5 million ($11.1 million/€8.1 million).

British ski and snowboard athletes finished with six top 10 results at Sochi 2014 including Jenny Jones' Olympic bronze medal in snowboard slopestyle, plus five more athletes finished in the top 20 and another three in the top 30.

Due to these results, the sports have been awarded £4.8 million($8.3 million/€6.1 million), up from £1.5 million ($2.6 million/€1.9 million), with the funding directed towards the disciplines of ski and snowboard slopestyle and halfpipe

"The latest funding award from UK Sport comes at one of the most exciting times for snowsports in this country," said Dave Edwards, chief executive of British Ski and Snowboard.

"The level of funding is reflective of the current talent in our Park and Pipe programme and it will allow us as a governing body to maintain world class performance programmes and offer even more support systems for these athletes."

Lizzie Yarnold's gold medal helped British Skeleton gain a huge investment increase for Pyeongchang 2018 ©Getty Images



British Skeleton head coach, Andi Schmid, added: "The original support of UK Sport and the National Lottery offered British Skeleton the security to design the structured programme that enabled us to break through to where we are today.

"This new funding announcement for 2014-18 is another huge vote of confidence in our very successful system, and we are so proud that we are now recognised alongside many of the bigger, successful GB Olympic sports.

"We have set ourselves ambitious goals in the future, and we will continue to focus on the quality of our athletes and coaches, and the development of our junior programme, never forgetting the roots and the experience of our proven performance formula."

In the review, UK Sport announced that four sports, bobsleigh, figure skating, short-track speed skating and Para-Alpine skiing, will be given an initial one-year investment award, with further funding for the following three years indicative of certain strict criteria being met within this year.

This one-year investment is slightly below a quarter of the outlined four-year investment of the four sports.

For bobsleigh, the one year investment figure sits at £1.1 million ($1.8 million/€1.3 million), with a potential four-year investment of £4.4 million ($7.6 million/€5.6 million), up from £3.3 million ($5.6 million/€4.1 million).

Figure skating has been given an initial investment of £385,920 ($556,419/€483,094), with a potential to move up to £1.6 million ($2.8 million/€2 million) should the criteria be met, while short-track speed skating's first year investment is £753,800 ($1.2 million/€943,254), rising to £4.3 million ($7.4 million/€5.4 million).

Para-Alpine skiing has a confirmed one-year investment award of £676,950 ($1.1 million/€847,379), while its Pyeongchang four-year investment award sits at £2.7 million ($4.6 million/€3.4 million).

Great Britain's wheelchair curlers took bronze at Sochi 2014 and saw a significant rise in its investment ahead of Pyeongchang 2018 ©Getty Images



The final sport to be awarded funding is wheelchair curling, in which the British team took bronze at Sochi 2014, with the sport seeing an increase from £350,000 ($596,000/€437,826) to £1.1 million ($1.9 million/€1.4 million) for Pyeongchang 2018.

The investment allocations, approved by UK Sport's Board yesterday, follow a rigorous investment process with winter Olympic and Paralympic sports, which began more than a year ago, according to UK Sport.

Sports produced business cases for investment in their programmes for the Pyeongchang cycle, which provided UK Sport with evidence of medal potential for Pyeongchang 2018 and the following Games in 2022, which are either to be awarded to either Almaty, Beijing, Lviv or Oslo next year. 

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