;)
In July this year UK Sport made the devastating announcement that our Cross-country ski team was ‘deemed not to be investible for World Class Programme funding’. In other words our elite GB Nordic team was to lose its vital funding at a time when the athletes have been delivering some of Britain’s greatest ever results on the snow. You can read GB Snowsport’s statement here.
So having had the rug abruptly and completely pulled from underneath them, the British Cross Country Ski Team set up a Crowdfunding appeal to support their training programme and enable them to keep Britain on the map as a top cross country ski nation. You can read about the appeal and hear directly from the athletes here.
The Club committee has followed this with great interest and sadness because we believe that it is vital for the future of our sport to have skiers at World class level who are inspirational role models for the next generation of cross country skiers. We also feel the team deserves support to enable them build on their hard work of recent years and continue to compete in top class competitions. As a result, at our last meeting the Committee decided that the Club would donate £500.00 to the appeal.
We also urge members to consider making their own donations to the appeal, if they are able to, and are delighted to see that a number have already contributed. Here’s the link to the appeal: https://www.gofundme.com/f/british-cross-country-ski-team
If you’re interested in hearing the latest news from one of the athletes listen to the podcast, ‘Behind the Great Britain xc ski phenomenon with Andrew Musgrave’ where he talks candidly to former Canadian World Champion and veteran World Cup cross-country ski racer, Devon Kershaw, in an interview for Faster Skier on 14 October.