Snowsport Scotland Elite Athlete Return to Training
Over the past few weeks, Snowsport Scotland has been working with sportscotland Institute of Sport (SIS), Scottish Government, key partners, medical experts and UK Sport to agree an approach for the ‘Resumption of Performance Sport’ in Scotland to develop a Performance Sport ‘Return to Training’ plan.
An exemption, subject to strict safety standards has been given to our performance teams, across all disciplines, and will allow them to continue with their training at targeted Scottish snowsport centres. These athletes are able to resume training under the exemption granted to professional and performance sport by the Scottish Government. An extensive plan and risk assessment has been carried out to allow the athletes to train safely. This process ensures that every possible precaution is taken to mitigate the potential spread of Coronavirus, both within and out-with the training environment.
Our current arrangements will have our Alpine performance athletes training at Glencoe Mountain Resort, which has started this week and our Park and Pipe athletes at Bearsden Ski and Board Centre, which will commence over the coming weeks.
We are continuing to work closely with sportscotland and SIS, in this multiple step process for ‘Return to Training’. The purpose of this guidance is to define a set of recommended minimum-practice guidelines for transition to training and competition for performance (Elite) athletes. It is anticipated that following this guidance will assist performance sport organisations to deliver a safe return to organised training for its athletes and staff. While initially only our Scottish performance athletes have been approved to train, we will continue to liaise with sportscotland on how we will build upon this.
Snowsport Scotland CEO, Trafford Wilson said, “We are thankful to both the sportscotland Institute of Sport, Glencoe Mountain and Bearsden Ski and Board Centre, for assisting us in getting our performance athletes back to training and look forward to working through further steps that allow more athletes to train in Scotland in the near future’’
