The announcement, which takes the total investment in sports such as bobsleigh, skiing, snowboarding and Para-alpine skiing to more than £14 million ($21 million/€16 million), follows a particularly successful 2012-2013 season, where the nation's athletes secured 10 medals at major events in both Olympic and Paralympic disciplines.

These included world titles in skeleton and curling for Shelley Rudman (pictured top) and the Scottish women's curling team - both will be strong medal hopes at next year's Winter Games, as well as a world bronze for the men's curling squad.

Elise Christie, meanwhile, became Britain's first female world medallist in short track speed skating winning bronze in the 1,000 metres in Debrecen, James Woods secured a world silver medal in slopestyle skiing and there was a five-medal haul for the nation at the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Alpine Skiing World Championships, with Kelly Gallagher winning four medals and Jade Etherington winning one.

UK Sport's director of performance, Simon Timson, predicted that "Sochi could present one of our best ever Winter Games performances", which, he says, would be a "fantastic early legacy from London 2012".


Britain's best-ever performance at a Winter Olympics came at Chamonix in 1924 - when the Games were held for the first time - when the finished sixth overall witht three medals, a gold, silver and two bronze.

"Our winter sports are in better shape than ever before, and our latest Mission 2014 analysis confirms this," said Timson.

"It's fantastic, with less than a year to go, to be able to invest in additional medal opportunities in Sochi with the extra funding announced today, and I am confident that Team GB and ParalympicsGB's performances in Sochi will demonstrate progression from Vancouver [2010]."

Mike Hay, Team GB's Chef de Mission for Sochi 2014, added that he is "excited" about the squad's prospects for the Games.

"Sochi will feature 12 new events and some of those bring with them possible medal opportunities for Team GB - in the likes of freestyle skiing and snowboarding," said Hay, a former international curler who coached the women's team to the Olympic gold medals at Salt Lake City in 2002.

"It is very likely that we will have greater depth, across more sports, in Sochi than we have ever seen for Team GB at an Olympic Winter Games."

Hay's Paralympic sport counterpart Penny Briscoe, who is also director of sport at the British Paralympic Association (BPA) echoed his words and said she felt confident in the athletes' preparations ahead of the Winter Paralympics.

"My position means that I am closely involved with our three winter sports and I know how incredibly hard our sports are working," she said.

"Equally, at the BPA we are committed to supporting our sports wherever necessary and to ensure that the team and support staff are in the best possible shape when they reach the start line in just under a year's time."


UK Sport also used today to reveal ambitious targets of claiming up to 52 medals at major international Olympic summer sport competitions and up to 126 in Paralympic events in this post-home Games year.

Chief executive Liz Nicholl said these figures show "business as usual in the high performance system".

"The critical certainly of funding we were given post Games and the early planning we did for this cycle have allowed us to hit the ground running, which gives us an important competitive edge at this stage in the cycle," she said.

"We have, of course, been through some recalibration post-London, but I have not detected any sense of complacency or loss of momentum within the sports.

"We invest more than just money in our sports and in order to realise our aim of winning more medals in Rio [2016], while building a stronger more sustainable system, we must continue to assess our system and innovate to remain cutting edge.

"As we approach one year post London 2012, and embark on our first busy summer of sport in the Rio cycle, we are in better shape than ever before and have real clarity on how we can continue to improve.

"This demonstrates a true legacy of the Games for British high performance sport."

Britain's Sports Minister Hugh Robertson added: "British athletes achieved great success at London 2012 and we want to keep that momentum going in the four years to Rio.

"We are setting ambitious targets with our sports as we want to ensure that our athletes are the best prepared in the world.

"Today's boost for winter sports will also help us look to better Team GB and ParalympicsGB's performance in Vancouver in Sochi next year."

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