SnowsportGB redefines incompetence

THEY have redefined incompetence, that is how dim-witted the top officials (or, at least, those with the calculators) are from SnowsportGB.

GUTTED: Chemmy Alcott doesn't have much to smile about on the eve of next month's Winter Olympics (Getty Images)

By all accounts it appears they are well-intentioned, nice guys with the best interests of the sport at heart.

Unfortunately, they can't add up and they have let down their athletes, coaches, colleagues and countless volunteers, vital to the success of any sport. 

It is only ironic that the hapless Royal Bank of Scotland, who couldn't do the five times table with the help of an abacus, were the ones to withdraw their overdraft facility.

To their credit the British Olympic Association - who have had a few money worries of their own in recent months - have been doing all they can to help, with the opening ceremony in Vancouver now just three weeks away.

And despite the threats that our alpine, freestyle and nordic skiers, plus snowboarders, will be excluded from next month's Winter Olympics, you can be pretty confident a fix will be found in the coming days.

But what happens when the Olympics are over, the BOA start looking towards London 2012 and the media focus on winter sports melts away for another four years?

Chemmy Alcott, who with a fair following wind and healthy dose of luck, could be a medal outsider in Vancouver claims she is owed £20,000 - and she'll be back of the queue in a long line of creditors should SnowsportGB go into administration, which is expected in the coming days.

And her coach, Mark Tilson, hasn't been paid for five months. It is credit to his loyalty to Alcott and the other skiers in the elite alpine programme that he is still around, rather than back home looking for alternative employment.

But what sort of preparation is that for the Olympics?

It's little surprise that Alcott posted one of her most disappointing results of the season today, 21st in the World Cup super-G at Cortina d'Ampezzo.

"I'm spending every last breath on trying to be the best in the world and then this happens," said Alcott, in The Times.

"My coach knows that he will be sacked in March. I can't believe that we are hosting the Olympics in 2012 and are considering not sending a team to Vancouver."

Snowboard hope Zoe Gillings has steadfastly refused to blame cash problems for her performances - although she has spent just four days training on the slopes, instead of the intended six weeks.

Alcott and Gillings do benefit from outside sponsorship deals, with the Witan Investment Trust and pokerstars.com respectively, but others are not so fortunate.

You have to feel for double British champion Ed Drake, reading the gloomy news from back home is not what many would choose to do before tackling the feared and fabled Hahnenkamm downhill this weekend.

If SnowsportGB, the trading name of the British Ski and Snowboard Federation, do go bust they wouldn't be the first UK national governing body to spend themselves into oblivion.

It's just over 12 years since the British Amateur Athletics Federation was brought to its knees by bankruptcy - squandering overnight the golden heritage of Coe, Ovett, Thompson, Sanderson, Christie and Gunnell.

Reformed as UK Athletics it now reaps the benefits from a healthy slate of sponsors and big-money television deals.

But British skiing and snowboarding isn't British track and field.

And when the Olympic flame is extinguished in Vancouver, the evidence is suggesting the sport in the UK could be about to enter a long, dark and very cold winter.

UPDATE 05/02/10: SnowsportGB have now gone into administration - and a row between snowboarders and alpine skiers is looming.

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