Why are wintersports underfunded?

Last week UK Sport announced a funding increase for British Winter Sports in order to prepare for the Sochi Olympics in February. While a boost of £443,200 may sound like a lot, sports that take place in the colder half of the year aren't getting a fair share of funding.

The 2012-13 winter sport season was an incredibly successful season for British athletes; overall they won 2 Gold medals, 1 Silver and 3 Bronzes, which would equate an all time best for Team GB at the Winter Olympics. However despite this success the total sum of funding for these sports is just shy of £14 million.

Now I understand that you may be reading this thinking that is a lot, especially in the economic climate in the UK at this moment in time however, Summer sports such as Field Hockey receive more than all winter sport, even though at best it can win us 2 Olympic Gold medals, which I see unlikely against the likes of The Netherlands and Argentina.

While I understand that UK Sport is not swimming in cash, the figures are depressing. The best funded of all Winter sports is Skeleton which is receiving less than £3.5 million according to the UK Sport website, even though British skeleton athletes are among the best in the world.

Whereas sports in which Team GB are hopeless, funding is comparatively abundant. Basketball was awarded £8 million on an appeal even though we are unlikely to get anywhere spectacular in this sport dominated by the USA.

British Skeleton told me that they cannot even afford a youth programme until after the Sochi Olympics. This deeply worries me as our success will not only be limited in the Winter Youth Olympics in 2016 but possibly in Pyeongchang 2018 onwards.

I find it depressing that sports on snow and ice are overlooked by UK sport while they still splash their cash on hopeless summer sports. I hope that this will change soon or else we may never surpass the record Winter games tally set in 1924.