Wow what a week! Nine races in six days took some organising and skill and to say they ran very smoothly would not be an exaggeration. It was nice to hear praise for the organisation from our Italian hosts during prize giving and the Mayor only had positive praise for the athletes in the resort. The warm and friendly welcome and cooperation from Bormio makes these events a pleasure and I'm sure the many clubs who attend must enjoy being able to train and set courses without too much trouble. Bormio itself is a lively town with several bars for those off hill moments and the variety of skiing on offer should keep most parents occupied in between races. The café at the top has a view to savour over morning coffee complete with a picture of our very own Chemmy Allcott.

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Snowsport England received £985 000 in grant funding for the delivery of their whole sport plan for the 09-13 period. Since receiving the funding in July 2009 Snowsport England has employed 2 Sports Development Officers and has researched the best way to prioritise this funding and implement our interventions to Grow, Sustain and develop Excellence in our sport. Snowsport England does not have the resources to work with all facilities and Clubs effectively so we have to prioritise where we will start to work to get the maximum effect. A consultation event was held at the British Ski and Snowboard Show to explain how we would initially prioritise our efforts and the interventions that we would use. We have been in touch with various facilities and have decided on the 10 facilities we will be working with as a priority. We will be drawing up action plans for each facility in the near future.

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On the 25th January Mike Barker brought his expertise and knowledge to the Suffolk Vikings Ski Race Team in Ipswich, Suffolk.

Mike was back in the UK for just a week but made time to attend and participate in a Monday night training session for the Suffolk Vikings racers. The main emphasis of the visit was for Mike to meet and work with the Suffolk Vikings Coaches.

The Club was founded in 1983 by Carl Reeder, who remains with the Club as Head Coach, and has just over forty racing members ranging from 7 years old up to adults. All regularily compete in ERSA Regional races, Club Nationals and races abroad on snow.

Initially Mike met with the coaches prior to the training session to discuss their individual needs and discussed with Carl the programme followed for race training. Over the years Carl has put together a training format which enables every session to have an organised structure and individual coaches put together training excercises, for each ability group, to achieve the targeted skill of each session.

Later on the slope Mike worked with the thirty team members who had turned up, on a cold Monday night and observed and assisted each of the coaches.

The Vikings break those who attend their training sessions into four groups from beginners in red bibs to the fastest racers in green bibs. The coaching is carried out by Craig Wright, Chris Anderson, Adele Forster and Katie Kolthammer (under the supervision of Carl) whose efforts annd commitment is greatly appreciated by all members of the Club.

The aim of Mikes visits (he returns to the club on the 15th March) is to identify suitable traing programmes for the Suffolk Vikings coaches and assist with their development. Using his experience and knowledge, specific training packages can be tailored for each coach to enable them to advance in Ski Race Coaching. The Suffolk Vikings Ski Team firmly believe in supporting their coaches and their development will translate to more competitive Viking racers taking part in the Ipswich Club National on the 6th June and the Ipswich ERSA race on the 20th June. The Suffolk Vikings Committee has committed to increase the spending on coach development by 100% this season.

The aim of the Vikings is for all members to enjoy competitive skiing in a friendly and welcoming club atmosphere. If anyone is interested in joining the team please contact Rolf Toogood 07824 385037 (Chairman) or Lesley Yeung on 07984 491296 (Race Manager).

The flame has been extinguished on the 21st Winter Olympic Games and Vancouver can reflect on the success and failures of the 2010 games. Certainly the impressive gold medal tally from the Canadians must go to prove that their controversial 'own the podium programme' worked. At the very least the Canadian Governing Body did something to try and help Canada look at their whole approach to sport and success. Some lessons for us perhaps?

Amy Williams' fantastic gold placed us on the medal table third from the bottom with only Estonia and Kazakhstan below. A few raised eyebrows and choice comments from some about how can we achieve so little, but in realistic terms Slovenia were placed only 2 above us and we matched Italy in gold medal terms. Italy also added 1 silver and 3 bronze to their account, which must bring into question their 'own the podium programme.' The worst preparation possible for an athlete has to be when the governing body goes into administration. Is it any wonder we were floundering in the medal stakes?

So to the GB athletes, who throughout all the troubles and worries have kept a dignified silence and carried on doing their jobs. They must have at times felt like the world was against them as their structure and training programmes fell apart.

Our own skiers Chemmy, Ed and Dave who have honed their skills on the dryslopes of England managed some great results, which included between them 5 results in the top 30 in the world. Chemmy added a further 2 positions in the top 15 with an 11th in Super Combined and 13th in downhill. Not a bad return for racers that have done a fair amount of their training on a surface that resembles toothbrushes.

Heading up the Snowboard Team was Zoe Gillings who came 8th on the hardest boarder cross course in the history of the sport. She fell victim to the huge jumps damaging her knee in the small finals.

These guys are a testament to the clubs and coaches that work tirelessly across the UK on little hills of plastic. I'm sure most clubs think they may have a future Dave, Chemmy or Ed and these guys will have inspired lots of youngsters on their journey into ski racing.

The 2010 winter games will be memorable for many reasons - the rain, shipping in snow and jumps made from hay bales to name a few, but the real show stealer was skier cross. At my local ski slope the talk was of Chris Del Bosco's amazing fall in the finals of the adrenaline pumping skier cross, which can only be a good thing for snowsports in general.

Well done to all our Team GB athletes across all the disciplines. We may only have one gold, but the real achievement is getting to the games and competing as equals.

Vickie Pullin

24/04/10 - Level 1 Snowboard Training Course - Southampton
Level 3 Performance course - July
Level 4 Performance course - 10-17th July in Les Alpes
Level 3 and 4 Development - 20th to 27th March

28th March - 5th Apr 12th March Meribel, FRA
British Senior and Junior Championships
6-9th April 22nd March Meribel, FRA
British Children's Championships

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