Moynihan: GB's London Stars Can Inspire Sochi Success

(ATR) British Olympic Association chairman Colin Moynihan tells Around the Rings that Team GB’s winter sports athletes will be backed by more funding in the lead-up to Russia’s first Winter Games.

Moynihan told ATR that as soon as the London Games are over, the BOA’s focus would switch to funding athlete preparations for Sochi 2014.

"Team-wise, I think there is really good potential," he said, stressing that Great Britain will send a strong team to Sochi, where he firmly believes they will deliver more medals in more sports than ever before at a Winter Games.

Sochi 2014 has been in the BOA’s planning since Vancouver 2010, where GB won just one medal – women’s skeleton gold by Amy Williams.

Moynihan explained that the BOA had set up a winter sports institute to bring together governing bodies of the seven sports on the Sochi 2014 program.

"[The NGBs] are stronger than they were four years ago," he said.

"I believe that if you look at the snow sports, which are more than 50 percent of the medal opportunities under one governing body, we look much stronger in disciplines such as freestyle, slopestyle and cross-country than we have done for a generation.

"We still have challenges on alpine. In ice sports, again we look strong."

Moynihan hopes the BOA and winter sports athletes trying to qualify for Sochi 2014 will build on the successes of GB at London 2012. By late Wednesday, the home nation had already won 22 golds, Britain’s best haul in 104 years, and matched the 48-medal target set by UK Sport.

"The inspiration these athletes have given to the winter sports will feed through in terms of performance of that, I have no doubt," he said.

Golds by Jessica Ennis and Mo Farah on the track coupledwith those won by cycling stars Chris Hoy, Victoria Pendleton and Ben Ainslie in sailing are the toast of the Games so far.

Moynihan said he believes the BOA can capitalize on this momentum in the build-up to Sochi 2014.

"Definitely, it will inspire the winter sports athletes, even more so the expertise that is around those athletes is transferable. We are building relations between the winter and summer sports."

Asked if there would be more funding for Team GB’s winter athletes this time around, Moynihan said financing was delivered at two levels.

"At governing body level, the answer is yes. There is more money invested from the lottery in winter sports than there was at this stage before Vancouver," he confirmed.

Commenting specifically on the BOA’s funding, he said that was "directly proportional to the size of the team we select, and we are not there yet".

BOA chief executive Andy Hunt was asked at a briefing earlier Wednesday whether the organization’s finances would be in better shape after London 2012 in the run-up to the Sochi Games. The BOA had faced a tough task to raise funds for its athletes ahead of its home Games.

Hunt emphasized that Team GB’s London 2012 athletes had benefitted from the "largest single investment ever made in supporting British sport". But he admitted that it's "always very challenging from revenues and cost perspective.

"I think out of this Games, work has been done to establish the Team GB brand, and the experience of our sponsors will put us in a very good position going into 2013-16 [cycle]," he said.

Reported by Mark Bisson

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