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Colin Moynihan from the BOA gives an insight into what has been going on with the British ski federation and what the future holds:

A fortnight ago a late evening meeting was convened in the British Olympic Association's new offices in London's Charlotte Street. The agenda was clear. The future of Snowsport GB. Sir John Ritblat, who has devoted a considerable proportion of his life to the support of British skiers and particularly the sponsorship of the British Championships, sought to bridge a large funding gap, with Oliver Jones, Chairman of SSGB, myself, as Chairman of the British Olympic Association and Andy Hunt, the impressive Chief Executive of the British Olympic Association. Four days of negotiations followed; off-line meetings took place and whilst the funding gap narrowed significantly, it could not be closed and the prospect of administration looked increasingly likely. Sir John worked tirelessly to find a solution. A meeting with Government in the DCMS produced no support and the Governing Body precariously moved towards insolvency.

Over the last six months SSGB's management had failed to address the business challenge facing the organisation as coaches went unpaid and worst of all the athletes, their support staff and wax technicians faced uncertainty at exactly the time they needed the full support of the Governing Body. At a time when we are asking the athletes to reach far beyond their personal bests; there was no governing body on call to help them.

The British Olympic Association began work on a Contingency Plan.

It did so against a backcloth which the new Government following the coming election must address. Consider the comparison with the summer sports. When John Major launched the lottery he initiated a policy which was to deliver the greatest legacy sport has received in our lifetimes. In the 1980's Ministers had approximately £50 million to spend on every aspect of British sport, from Governing Bodies to sporting infrastructure and Olympic performance programmes. Now, as we approach London 2012, the 26 summer Olympic sports will spend nearly £400 million of lottery and Treasury funding over four years. This has allowed a massive transformation to take place. First rate management has arrived around the Board tables of independent governing bodies. Strong financial and internal controls support autonomous organisations; the best coaches in the world are provided; efficient and effective governance and above all a philosophy which is totally focused on the athletes they are there to serve now permeates the management style in many of the summer sports represented on the National Olympic Committee.

This is what drives the Formula One sports of rowing; cycling and sailing to name but three. At the British Olympic Association we call this state of mind the "0.545 Club mindset"; of which the finest exponent is our Head of Performance, Sir Clive Woodward; President of BASI. 0.545 of a second was the collective time which separated five gold medals at the Athens Games from being five silver medals. Add together the winning margins of the coxless IV; Kelly Holmes' two gold medals; the men’s 4 x 100 final and Chris Hoy's 1 km time trial and you have over twelve minutes spent between them competing in their finals. Yet only 0.545 of a second separates all their gold medals from silvers. That attention to detail; that focus on the needs of the athletes first requires everyone in their sports to put aside internal politics; competing interests and conflicts.

In skiing that is the major challenge ahead. How we best serve the skiers and snowboarders. And that is not easy when there is so little lottery funding available to the winter sports. Against the £400 million for London 2012, the total lottery and government funding for our winter sports over the same period is £6.5 million - or 1.5% of the money allocated to the summer sports. No wonder so many members of the International Olympic family cannot understand how a country that is to host the summer Olympics in two years time can see their blue-riband winter sports Governing Body go into administration eight days before the Winter Olympics begin in Vancouver. After the General Election I will be calling for a comprehensive review of how the winter sports are funded and we need powerful voices for skiing and snowboarding; voices focused on the athletes and not jockeying for position in the corridors of Governing Bodies.

My job now is to chair British Skiing & Snowboarding until it has achieved the goals set out in this article. When that is achieved, with significant athlete representation at every level, I believe the organisation should develop as an independent, strong, autonomous and well resourced skier-centric organisation committed to the interests of the best skiers and snowboarders in the United Kingdom; and it is right that at that point, I focus all the British Olympic Association’s energies on London 2012.

In summary our immediate journey will be divided into two stages.

During stage one, we will ensure that:

(i)       Athletes and officials can attend the Olympic Games in Vancouver and are funded for the Games period.

(ii)      A FIS administration process is established and managed; particularly for race entries.

(iii)     Existing British Snowsport Insurance cover remains in place for all involved in ski racing.

(iv)     Every effort is made to work with the stakeholders in British skiing to ensure that the end of season British Championships can take place and a decision is made and publicised as soon as possible to allow parents, coaches and skiers to book flights and accommodation if the Championships are to go ahead.

(v)      We learn the lessons from the collapse of SSGB and make clear recommendations for the future vision, mission, structure and funding of British Skiing & Snowboarding.

(vi)     The scope and terms of reference for a subsequent consultation process are determined but not at the expense of first delivering a Formula One Governing Body focused on athlete support with a strong financial platform in place.

During stage one a strong working relationship needs to be established between the British Olympic Association and British Skiing & Snowboarding. This will be embedded into a Memorandum of Understanding between the two organisations.

We anticipate that this MOU will allow the British Skiing & Snowboarding to be based at the British Olympic Association's Headquarters at Charlotte Street in London and to draw on the expertise from the British Olympic Association to deliver internal legal counsel, financial, commercial, operations, comms, policy, technology and HR support.

The next stage is to transition British Skiing & Snowboarding into a freestanding, fully independent organisation to represent the skiers and snowboarders in all disciplines for which it is responsible to FIS. A strong representation from an Athletes’ Commission will be central to delivering this aim. Central to the work of all of us in the world of sports administration is to serve the skiers and their clubs. If we fail on that count, we fail on every count.

Additionally, we all need to recognise that until the Board establishes new selection policies and British squads throughout the Pathway, the following approach, outlined by Dave Edwards, the Chief Executive will apply - an approach likely to continue until the end of this season. As he has stated in a recent email:

"You may have heard that SSGB went into administration by Court Order recently. During the last seven days the communication between SSGB and the new FIS recognised body, British Skiing & Snowboarding has been ineffective. The information requested by the British Olympic Association regarding previous race entries has not been made available in full to the detriment of skiers, and SSGB continued to make entries after the Governing Body was placed in administration. As a result, duplicate entries are appearing and will no doubt continue to appear over the coming days. The new Board has yet to agree status to be accorded to skiers and any selection policy / matrix for British Skiing & Snowboarding. I have therefore decided that entries are to be made purely on merit this season, i.e. the lowest six point racers on the current list for a FIS race with a one week deadline to allow skiers and their coaches to book accommodation and travel, without fear of being bumped on the eve of a race."

I welcome such transparency and more news will be posted on the British Olympic Association website until the British Skiing & Snowboarding sets up its own. As every day passes more work will be done to support the athletes and provide the policy framework necessary for a successful Governing Body following the untimely demise of SSGB into administration and bankruptcy.

Ingie Christophersen, doyen of the DHO, in her moving translation of Tor Bomann-Larsen's biography of Ronald Amundsen reflected that as the ultimate polar explorer, Amundsen's own approach to an extraordinary career as one of the most famous explorers in Polar history pointed to the secret of his success. "I may say that this is the greatest factor - the way in which the expedition is equipped - the way in which every difficulty is foreseen, and precautions taken for meeting or avoiding it. Victory awaits him who has everything in order - luck people call it. Defeat is certain for him who has neglected to take the necessary precautions in time; this is called bad luck."

Every ski racer reading this will know how true this is. Everyone associated with the British Skiing & Snowboarding knows that attention to detail is everything if we are to deliver support to the athletes. That is our goal.

 

Colin Moynihan