Skier Crawford raises his own cash for Winter Olympic bid

By Holly Hamilton, Sportsbeat

BRITISH champion Dougie Crawford is holding his own fundraiser this week in a bid to raise cash for next year's Winter Olympics.

SLIPPERY SLOPE: Dougie Crawford admits he's left reeling by a funding cut from national governing body SnowsportGB

Crawford, who finished just outside the top 20 in his World Cup debut in Wengen last year, has been hit by a cash crisis at national governing body SnowsportGB.

And he admits to feeling jealous when he sees the millions being invested in the London 2012 Olympics.

"It's been a crappy summer because of the funding cut," he said.

"It's caused a lot of stress, which I could do with out. We missed out on some skiing days and we are now all forced into doing our own thing.

"I'm having to run my own fundraiser next weekend in Glasgow to try and make some money. It's at Bearsden Ski Club and there will be slalom events in the afternoon followed by a race night in the evening.

"We do find it difficult to see how much money is being ploughed into London 2012.

"It's frustrating that some sports get huge amounts of money, even if they don't have a huge amount of talent. However, that's the set up and we need to get the results to give ourselves a higher profile."

Snowsport GB found itself around £280,000 in the red because of poor financial management and chief executive Mark Simmers left his position earlier this year.

The organisation receives £1.3 million in funding but admits they've been spending more than they've been receiving since the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin.

In total they support 20 full-time athletes and World and Europa Cup level, with an additional 15-20 supporting coaches and officials.

"The simple answer is that there has been a lack of attention to financial management," admitted acting chief executive Robin Kellen, who also claimed the strength of the euro against the pound has seen the cost of training and competition trips rocket.

"It's a distraction that our skiers do not need in Olympic year. To say it's a great shame is an understatement.

"We have already cut 30% of our administration costs for this financial year.

"It is an ongoing process and we are looking to maintain them at the lowest level possible in order to be able to deliver excellent athlete programmes."

However, Crawford - who along with Ed Drake represents Britain's top alpine skiing hope this season, following the retirement of Finlay Mickel - insists he won't get too distracted in Olympic year.

He makes his first appearance of the campaign in the Europa Cup in Reiteralm before flying out to Lake Louise for the World Cup downhill and super-G later this month.

"The Olympics would be awesome but it's a long way to go before then. I need to make sure I get the right results to definitely get my place in the team and nothing is set just yet. It's a waiting game until January," he added.

"Sochi 2014 is definitely the long-term aim. We have a lot of young guys in the team at the moment so we are realistically not going to be peaking until 2014 or even after that. 2014 should be really successful for us and everything is building up to that.

"Vancouver will be a great experience especially if we can put out some good performances but for medals it's really 2014 that we are looking to."