Children's Ski Team

Report for the Skiers Trust, on the British Children’s Ski Team

I am delighted to report on the progress of the British Children’s Ski Team over recent months.

With a team numbering 29 in total (listed below), we approached the 2010-2011 season with a strong base of preparation both on the fitness side, and on-snow training. We held three glacier training camps, and of particular note was our first speed camp, in Piesendorf (Austria) in December 2010, where we trained alongside other young national teams on closed pistes. One young athlete said that he had gained mores miles under his SuperG skis on the first morning than in the whole of the rest of the previous season.

With the help of the generous award received from the Skiers Trust, we have been able to support the winter race and to offer all fitness camps free of charge. Thus each and every selected athlete has benefited from this award.

We attended five international FIS competitions during the winter, all of very high calibre, and all attended by teams from many Alpine and non-Alpine nations. Our team achieved its best ever results across the board at Topolino, the unofficial World Championships for children of this age range. I believe this is an indication of the overall improvement of the standards of training that we and the clubs and academies are able to provide to our young developing athletes.

Topolino 2011 Slalom:

Yasmin Cooper 9th; Megan Jenkins 13th

Charlie Raposo 13th; Ashley Breese 16th

Darcie Mead 17th

In the FIS competition in the Czech Republic, with some 20 nations competing, Zak Vinter took the bronze medal in slalom, and Jess Anderson was placed 5^th. Once again these are excellent results, from an event where we compete (by invitation) in the Czech national races prior to the Ski Interkriterium, and where we were once again able to include a wintry tour of Prague.

Traditionally we do well in the Trofeu Borrufa event in Andorra; 2011 proved no exception:

SuperG

Megan Jenkins - silver medal

Lachlan Veitch - bronze

Slalom

Megan Jenkins - 4^th

Lachlan Veitch - 5th

Giant Slalom

Megan Jenkins 5th (after posting 2nd fastest first run time)

Sadly our Head Coach, Gareth Trayner, decided to move on at the end of the winter season, and it has taken some time to re-establish our staffing. Gareth will be greatly missed, but we are now delighted to have Sean Langmuir, Olympian and very highly qualified coach/BASI leader, to lead the team going forward. Lynn Sharp very kindly stepped forward and ran the summer programme (which has continued uninterrupted) to cover the time lapse between appointments.

I am delighted and relieved that the external funding that supports Sean’s salary and our ongoing work in developing talent markers for the best young athletes, as well as work on changes as required by the forthcoming FIS age range changes is to continue, and will once again be routed through the Skiers Trust.

We worked hard to raise other funds for the team last season, and were able to raise a total of £3600 in the 2010-2011 raffle. Switzerland Tourism supported the summer camp to the tune of £500, and provided free rail passes as needed. Trespass also continues to support the team, though are now charging us for a large part of the clothing they supply. A major challenge came when the international race organizers decided very late in the day to change the support offered to teams competing in the events – this led to an increase in costs to us of approximately £2000 at each of three events. The changes were not notified until November (in two cases), and not until the day of departure from the resort in the third. We had to raise the charge to parents to cover these unforeseen costs. With an overall decrease in moneys available to sponsor events and teams, I can only see these costs increasing, and we will need to continue to seek extra support to afford the young athletes and their parents some support with the costs involved.

With Sean Langmuir at the helm of the British Children’s Ski Team, I am confident that we will be able to look forward to seeing another group of well prepared young athletes testing the water at the 2012 winter race competitions, with high hopes of success - and in the meantime I would like to voice my heartfelt thanks to the Trustees of the Skiers Trust for their unstinting support. We are, once again, indebted to you.

British Children's Ski Team 2010-2011

Ch1G	Ch1B	ChIIG	ChIIB
Jessica Anderson	Iain Innes	Florence Bell	Ashley Breese
Yasmin Cooper	Duncan Kuwall	Honor Clissold	Fraser Buchan
Freya Eaton	Jordan Lowe	Kelly Greenbank	Jordan Fellows
Anna Henderson	Alex Madden	Giulia Harte	Brodie Goddard-Jones
Megan Jenkins	Fraser Middleton	Isabel Kirk	Zac Pierce
	Lachlan Veitch	Darcie Mead	Robert Poth
	Zak Vinter	India Moynihan	Charlie Raposo
		Isadora Taylor	Josh Serdet
			Laurie Taylor

Jenny Shute

Manager, British Children’s Ski Team

Youth & Children’s Consultant, British Ski & Snowboard

www.gbjuniorski.com

August 2011