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How our funding is supporting Olympic pathways

Learn about the role we play in backing aspiring winter sports athletes through our investment of National Lottery and Government funding into talent and support programmes.

13th February 2026

Updated 20 February 2026

The Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games are under way and we’re proud of the role we play in supporting aspiring winter sport athletes.

We invest National Lottery and Government funding into talent pathways in several winter sports and, through SportsAid and other partners, we fund financial and athlete support programmes like Backing The Best and TASS.

Our investment favours sports in which participants can train and compete at community sports facilities in England – namely indoor or dry snow sports, with a greater focus on park and pipe and slopestyle, rather than (for example) alpine skiing or biathlon. 

Our current investments for the 2022–2026 funding cycle:

  1. Wheelchair curling: £150,000 – the three English curlers selected for the Paralympic Games will become the first non-Scots to take to the ice.
  2. Snowsport England: £400,000.
  3. British Ice Skating: £300,000 – exclusively into short track speed skating programmes based at the National Ice Centre in Nottingham.

During the 2026 Games, we’re showcasing some of the athletes, coaches and programmes that have been supported by The National Lottery and Sport England funding...

  • Richard Shoebridge

    Richard Shoebridge, former Team GB Olympian turned Team GB coach, has lived speed skating at every level. 

    After the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games, where he coached Team GB short track skater Niall Treacy, Richard will be back coaching in the UK and helping grow the sport he loves.

    Richard's own Olympic journey began when he started skating at just five years old, inspired by his father. 

    He went on to compete for Team GB at Sochi 2014 and won World Championship bronze as part of the men's 5,000m relay team that same year – the same team that broke the world record in 2011. 

    Now he's passing that experience on to the next generation.

    “My dad's family grew up in Fleet, outside of London, Richard says. “But I was born in South Africa and my parents emigrated to Canada when I was 11. 

    “I grew up skating in the Canadian system and eventually came back over to here to compete in the Great Britain team.

    “Over in Canada it’s like every single person knows how to skate – not speed skate but skate. That's the culture. Here we're lucky if we get a hundred people registered for the British Championships.”

    Rinks with National Lottery links

    Richard is now a regular at Nottingham’s National Ice Centre – originally built with £23 million of National Lottery money. But his links stretch far and wide.

    “Our speed skating background started in Great Britain,” he says. “My dad was part of the Mohawks – it was Birmingham Mohawks back then, now it's Solihull Mohawks.” 

    We have awarded a couple of small grants to Solihull Mohawks using National Lottery funds: one helped the club during COVID-19, the other covered sessions for young people to get into speed skating. 

    In all, over 250 ice and snow sport clubs around the UK have received National Lottery money over the years.

    Team GB speed skating coach Richard Shoebridge smiles at the camera on the ice, with his arms folded.

    Coaching Team GB speedster Niall Treacy   

    “I started coaching at the beginning of 2017 – developing Niall,” Richard says. In fact, Niall came with me to my first competition as a coach. 

    “We've been through quite the journey together through some trying times but nothing that we haven't learned to navigate through.”

    As a nation, do we punch above our weight on the ice?

    “We do well in this country; for the limited amount of people that we have competing in the sport, we always seem to get a few to the top level,” Richard says.

    “Canada has thousands of speed skaters. Same with Korea. If your base is bigger, naturally you're going to have more top performers. 

    “We've got a relatively very high percentage of top performers given the small numbers involved in the sport.”

    Team GB speed skater Niall Treacy and coach Richard Shoebridge smile at the camera on the ice, with their arms folded.

    How about developing the grassroots – or ice roots?

    “Local clubs like the one at Altrincham are great,” he says. “My daughter speed skates as well; she's just turned eight. We went together to one of their taster sessions.” 

    Those taster sessions in Altrincham are funded by us with National Lottery money, but opportunities to try speed skating are not always easy to find in every part of the UK. 

    So when they’re within reach, Richard urges people to get on the ice.
     
    “My daughter comes to the club sessions here (the National Ice Centre in Nottingham) every week,” he says.

    “We've got probably 10 to 15 regular youngsters – a close-knit group, which is really cool to see. They’ve also had a parent and child session, a public session.

    “We brought our other daughter down to the ice in Nottingham – she’s three and really likes skating. It was a great hour on the ice.”

    Get your skates on

    Richard continues: “We look to pull more people into the sport – we just had a young boy start at the Nottingham club who said he saw the 25th anniversary gala we’d put on in 2025.

    “He saw speed skating for the first time and loved it. He kept telling his parents, ‘I want to try speed skating’ until he showed up one Sunday. And he brought a friend who now also wants to come speed skating.” 

    The need for speed

    The speed of this dynamic sport is a major attraction for people of all ages. Richard shows a pair of speed skates with blades much longer than you see on figure skates.

    “Any time we do public sessions, I try and get people to try on speed skates,” he adds. “They always go, ‘oh, what are those?’ Then, ‘why are your blades so long?’. 

    “And then they watch speed skating and go, ‘wow, you go so much faster’. That’s often when people want to come and try speed skating and get involved.”

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  • Altrincham Speed Skating Club

    Under the lights of the ice rink in Greater Manchester, a handful of skaters are quietly keeping a specialist winter sport alive.

    It’s around 9pm on a Sunday night and feels a long way from the ice arenas in Italy that are hosting the skaters during the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics 2026. Yet this is how the foundations of UK speed skating are laid, one session at a time.

    The small group warming up on the ice is how the next generation of UK speed skaters is slowly developed. By people like Sally Sherard-Bornshin, coach and secretary of Altrincham Speed Skating Club.

    Thanks to our investment of National Lottery funding, the club has been able to run affordable beginner sessions with all equipment provided – making this Olympic sport accessible to families across the North West.

    “The grant from Sport England has been fantastic,” says Sally. “It’s made it possible for us to run beginners’ sessions – while gaining more exposure to our sport.

    “We have held 17 beginners’ sessions, giving 29 skaters the opportunity to try short track.

    “We have new people signing up and showing interest every week. I'm sure that with the Olympics being on, our sessions will grow even more.”

    Altrincham Speed Skating Club coach Sally Sherard-Bornshin talks to two young skaters on the ice.

    As a local, family-run club, Sally happens to be the only coach. But she’s developing youngsters – in fact, all age groups, from the basics to higher levels.

    Some starters need to get used to skating, but even experienced skaters need to get used to the specific skills of speed skating. And even the tools of the trade – the blades are much longer than figure skating blades.

    In the stands at this chilly winter night session, proud parent Craig O’Hara warmly chats about the sport while his 18-year-old daughter Isla whooshes round the ice.

    “It's a niche sport and given the size of the club it means advertising to get people in has never been high,” he said. “Of course, the ice time costs money every week, so The National Lottery money has helped pay for that.”

    So, what’s the attraction of speed skating? Craig shares some of his daughter’s reflections.

    “Isla says the feeling of speed's not to be underestimated before you get on the ice,” he says.

    “You do go round at speed. And it's quite difficult – like the crossovers that they do, where they're crossing over their blades around the corners. That takes a while for them to get the hang of.”

    The community vibe

    “The club’s really important to my daughter as well,” Craig adds. “It's like a family. 

    “And they go to competitions. If you get fast enough, you can get into the British Championship. They can compete in the same space as people like Niall Treacy (Team GB) – obviously not in the same race, but in that same space.”

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  • Niall Treacy

    Team GB skater Niall Treacy has competed in his second Olympic Winter Games this month, having shown remarkable progress since taking his bow at Beijing 2022.

    The 25-year-old is out there on his own, racing solo. And racing against the clock. Sprinting against the swiftest skaters in the world – on ice! 

    Speed skating is a niche event that some say is the fastest unassisted sport. Racers wear helmets, because with speed comes jeopardy and crashes happen.

    And the skaters wear extra-long blades, so it’s hardly surprising to find out they wear cut-proof skate suits. Beyond that minimal gear, Niall needs to rely on keeping a cool head. 

    Yet Niall’s used to staying cool. He’s the youngest of four Treacy brothers, two of whom skated to elite level in this same sport.

    So, Niall’s waited his turn, racing against bigger, faster brothers, and others, until it was his time to shine.

    The start

    Fast starts are a key part to success in speed skating. But Niall’s journey to represent Team GB at Milano Cortina Winter 2026 has been long and steady.

    "I did all my club sessions at Solihull ice rink," he said. "It was twice a week. And then you would race in domestic competitions.

    "Then as you get a bit older, you start doing what's called the Star Class Series. You race against Western Europe and then the top eight from Western and Eastern Europe do a competition. So that was the progression."

    Team GB speed skater Niall Treacy competes at the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games.

    Sports careers have all kinds of challenges – training, competition, injuries, and funding ups and downs. Niall’s journey is no different.

    He benefitted from the Speed Skate Performance Programme that was helped off the ground by our £100,000 National Lottery grant. 

    "The coaches and team behind the scenes worked hard to set up the programme in 2019," added Niall. "It hasn't been easy for the past eight years to get to the level that we're at now."

    Building on Beijing

    After competing at Beijing 2022, where he finished 27th in the men's 1,000m, Niall has progressed rapidly.

    In 2024, he took silver in the men's 1,000m at the European Short Track Championships and won bronze in the same event on the World Tour.

    His fourth-place finish at the 2025 European Championships and multiple top-10 World Tour positions this season further demonstrated his potential, before he headed to Milano Cortina to compete in three events, reaching the final of the 1,500m.

    Looking ahead

    In short track speed skating, even slight changes in funding can make big differences. Niall agrees, saying: "In the past four years, you can see the success that British ice skating has had.

    "Things have been a little bit easier – like sending a physio out to a competition or something like that." 

    Ahead of Milano Cortina, £1.4 million from UK Sport boosted British ice skating. It benefitted figure skating and, to a lesser extent, the long track speed skating event, while our investment has focused on short track.

    As distributors of National Lottery money, we and UK Sport have helped Niall and speed skating. And we'd also like to thank the UK public for raising that money for good causes by playing The National Lottery.

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  • Lizzy Yarnold

    In 2008, a young woman from Kent walked into the UK Sport Girls4Gold talent identification programme hoping to be selected for the modern pentathlon.

    She had no idea what skeleton was. By the time the selection process was over, Lizzy Yarnold was on a sled – and within a few years, she was one of the most decorated winter athletes Britain had ever produced.

    The moment that changed everything came while she was travelling home from the World Championships, where she’d just finished third.

    News came through that she had secured National Lottery funding - the career she had been building, piece-by-piece, suddenly had a foundation beneath it.  

    “The impact was huge,” she says. “I could stop my full-time job, finish university, and focus completely on sport and being the best that I could be.”

    Through UK Sport’s World Class Programme, National Lottery funding gives athletes exactly that – the ability to train full-time, access the world’s best coaches and benefit from pioneering sports science and medical support.

    Sochi 2014: Gold, and a flag to carry

    At the 2014 Sochi Winter Games, Yarnold won skeleton gold – the latest in an unbroken line of British skeleton medals stretching back to Salt Lake City 2002, when Alex Coomber claimed bronze.

    Since National Lottery funding for elite sport began in 1997, Team GB and ParalympicsGB have won over 1,000 Olympic medals across Summer and Winter Games combined – and skeleton has punched well above its weight in that tally.

    Shelley Rudman had taken silver in Turin, Amy Williams gold in Vancouver – training alongside the young Yarnold at the University of Bath – and now Yarnold had added her own chapter to the story.

    Lizzy Yarnold poses with her gold medal in front of a Team GB sign at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games.

    Sports scientists at the University of Bath later noted that her winning margin in Sochi had been partly attributed to her push-start performance – itself the product of National Lottery-funded biomechanics research conducted at the track where she'd trained for years.

    Yarnold was chosen to carry the Great Britain flag at the closing ceremony. A fitting end to a remarkable journey from unknown heptathlete to Olympic champion.

    But she had bigger ideas.

    PyeongChang 2018: Against all odds

    The road to the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang was one of the most remarkable stories in British sporting history – and most of it was hidden from public view at the time.

    Yarnold had been diagnosed with a vestibular disorder affecting her inner ear. She was suffering from a chest infection so severe that she was struggling to breathe on the first day of competition. And she had been carrying an undisclosed knee tumour that would require surgery the moment the Games were over.

    She nearly pulled out.

    Instead, on the final run, she set a new track record.

    She won gold by nearly half a second. Sharing the podium in third place was her British teammate Laura Deas – who in that moment became the first Welsh woman ever to win a Winter Olympic medal, and completed the first time in history that Great Britain had won two medals in the same Winter Olympic event.

    When Yarnold retired later that year, she was the only British Winter Olympian ever to have won two gold medals. She had already received an MBE after Sochi. She was awarded an OBE after PyeongChang.

    Lizzy Yarnold in skeleton action.

    What makes the achievement all the more extraordinary is that it was built on a facility that, by international standards, is modest: the push-start track at the University of Bath, funded by the National Lottery, which has never had a home ice track.

    World-class results, produced from the ground up, through investment in the right people at the right time.

    Back at Bath

    With the 2026 Games under way in Milano Cortina, Yarnold was back at the University of Bath as a National Lottery Ambassador – this time as host and judge of the National Lottery Win-ter Challenge – part of a series of events celebrating the Games and the investment that makes British winter sport possible.

    Four influencers from across the fitness world attempted to master the skeleton push start, with Lizzy assessing every attempt. Her teammate Laura Deas was back on the track demonstrating the technique.

    Former Team GB skeleton athletes Lizzy Yarnold and Laura Deas pose for a photo wearing National Lottery shirts.

    The National Lottery has invested more than £200 million in winter sports since 1995 – including over £130 million directly into elite performance programmes – supporting athletes and grassroots clubs from every nation of the UK.

    Over £32 million is raised every week for Good Causes by National Lottery players, helping British athletes turn their dreams into reality and inspiring people right across the country to get active in sport.

    For England, those players helped fund a push-start track in Bath, a talent identification scheme that found a heptathlete who didn’t know what skeleton was, and push-started a career that ended with two Olympic gold medals and a place in history.

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