With three months to go until the start of the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games, Great Britain’s skiers and snowboarders are training hard ahead of a key winter season, with many of them still looking to gain the all-important Olympic Qualifying Standard and a quota place in order to secure their place at the Games.
Athletes across all the disciplines have been working hard over the summer at training camps, on strength and conditioning programmes, on new tricks for the freestyle athletes as well as testing new equipment. Most of them have spent several weeks or months in the Southern Hemisphere at training camps and competitions, many producing impressive results, including James Woods’ and Jenny Jones’ World Cup silvers in New Zealand.
Ahead of the winter competition season, 17 of the British Ski and Snowboard athletes have already met the Olympic Qualifying Standards (OQS) with several more in with a chance of reaching that standard. For those that have met the OQS, some will already have confirmed their quota place, but some still have to gain their quota place in the remaining competitions. Confirmation of which skiers or snowboarders have been selected to compete at Sochi 2014 will not come until 22 January 2014 – just two weeks before the Games – when the team selection for Team GB will be announced for skiing and snowboarding.
The athletes who have met the OQS (but not necessarily a quota place) from BSS to date are:
Snowboard
Jenny Jones – Snowboard Slopestyle, Billy Morgan – Snowboard Slopestyle, Katie Ormerod – Snowboard Slopestyle (not secured quota place yet), Aimee Fuller – Snowboard Slopestyle (not secured quota place yet), Jamie Nichols – Snowboard Slopestyle (not secured quota place yet), Zoe Gillings – Snowboard Cross, Ben Kilner – Snowboard Halfpipe, Dom Harington – Snowboard Halfpipe (not secured quota place yet)
Ski
James ‘Woodsy’ Woods – Ski Slopestyle, Katie Summerhayes – Ski Slopestyle, Murray Buchan – Ski Halfpipe, Ellie Koyander – Moguls (not secured quota place yet), Emily Sarsfield – Ski Cross, Chemmy Alcott – Alpine Skiing, Dave Ryding – Alpine Skiing, Andrew Musgrave – Cross Country Skiing and Andrew Young – Cross Country Skiing.
“For some of our elite athletes the next 100 days will be spent achieving the vital qualification performances to enable them to be selected for the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games,” said Dave Edwards, Chief Executive, “ For those that have qualified they will be working equally hard achieving results that will ensure that they remain on the top of their game and, if possible, enhance their starting position and opportunities at the Games.”
The next big competitions for the GB elite athletes start with the Alpine World Cup in Levi, Finland on 16/17 November which sees Dave Ryding try and stamp his mark on the World Cup circuit. Then as we enter December, the season really kicks off with a Snowboard Cross World Cup in Montafon, Austria from 6-8th December where Zoe Gillings should compete. The same weekend sees a Ski Cross World Cup taking place in Nakiska, Canada and a Cross Country Skiing World Cup in Lillehammer, Norway.
Snowboard Halfpipe athlete Dom Harington is due to compete in the Halfpipe World Cup in Ruka, Finland on 12/13 December. Harington will then join the rest of the GB Freestyle Snowboard squad and the GBFreeski squad for the Snowboard and Ski Slopestyle and Halfpipe World Cup in Copper Mountain, USA from 18-22 December.