The athletes embracing GB Snowsport’s winning culture

CEO Vicky Gosling explains how a new confidence is leading to stunning performances by Britain’s skiers and snowboarders – and the world is taking notice

From Olympic gold medallists Charlotte Bankes and Huw Nightingale to 12‑year‑old snowboard phenomenon Riley Sharpe, GB Snowsport has high‑performing talent at every stage of its programme. The connection between them is a high-performance culture that puts the athletes first, giving them the support to perform, recover and keep improving.

The 2025/26 season showed just how powerful that culture has become. Bankes and Nightingale won Britain’s first-ever Olympic gold medal on snow in the mixed team snowboard cross. Later in the season, British athletes claimed four Crystal Globes in Olympic disciplines: two for freestyle skier Kirsty Muir, one for halfpipe skier Zoe Atkin and one for Bankes. British athletes had never previously won four Globes in one season.

The confidence is now visible beyond competition. In June 2026, Vicky Gosling, CEO of GB Snowsport, became the first British representative elected to the council of the International Ski and Snowboard Federation. She was subsequently appointed one of its four vice‑presidents. Gosling sees the role as a measure of how far Britain has come.

She says: “I think for a long time British snow sport was seen as the plucky underdog. Our people were just grateful to be there, but that’s gone now. Our athletes arrive at World Cups and Olympic and Paralympic Games expecting to compete for medals and other nations now see us that way too.”

Building discipline and trust

Support offered to the athletes covers strength and conditioning, nutrition, lifestyle advice and help with the pressures they face away from competition. Programmes are tailored to individuals, and the organisation carries out what Gosling calls “cultural health checks”.

These are anonymised surveys which seek to understand how people feel the organisation’s culture is working for them. It provides an opportunity for athletes, coaches and employees to flag any concerns or issues, which GB Snowsport can then use to address emerging cultural challenges.

In practical terms, strong, trusting relationships between athletes and key members of the team such as the coaches and physiotherapists are essential. An informal conversation over a cup of coffee can quickly identify areas of difficulty for an athlete, whether it’s on the slopes or in their personal lives, so that support can be offered.

Gosling says: “Happy athletes are winning athletes and you saw that really come through in the Olympics. Charlotte Bankes, for example, had a really tough individual race and went out in the quarter-finals. You saw her come back two days later with Huw and win a gold medal. I think that turnaround is what trust looks like in practice. Nobody panicked. Nobody gave up.”

Kirsty Muir returned after having ACL surgery in January 2025 and shoulder surgery in March 2025 to finish fourth twice at the Olympics, narrowly missing a medal on both occasions. Gosling says the team gave her space while making its belief in her clear. Muir then won back‑to‑back World Cups and secured the Slopestyle and Overall Freeski Park & Pipe Crystal Globes.

“I think that’s so inspiring for the next generation,” says Gosling. “And we developed that attitude by being honest. We debrief everything. We debrief the good parts and we debrief the bad parts, and we do it all without blame. We have a no-blame culture and we give athletes ownership of their programmes. That’s really important because they’re the ones that truly understand what they’re doing the best.

“If you look at Kirsty, she had a physically and emotionally relentless period, so rest and recovery have been hugely important. I think we exude professionalism, we inspire and we show what happens when you get broken – we build you back up again.”

Trust becomes especially clear in Para alpine skiing. Neil Simpson and his guide Rob Poth took silver in the visually impaired alpine combined at the 2026 Paralympic Games. The skier and guide must act as a partnership at speed, each relying on the other’s judgement. They have built their trusting relationship over the past three years, developing the language they use while skiing and how they operate together.

Culture in action

Kirsty Muir

Zoe Atkin

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Charlotte Bankes and Huw Nightingale

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Neil Simpson and Rob Poth

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Riley Sharpe

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The Carrick-Smith brothers

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Creating one team with one purpose

Creating one team across snow sport is difficult. Alpine racers, cross‑country skiers, freestyle riders and Para athletes compete on different calendars, often in different countries. Gosling says athletes turn up to support one another when their events coincide, while coaches share lessons across programmes.

When Muir, Atkin and Bankes secured their Crystal Globes within days of one another, the celebration spread across disciplines. Shared standards give those separate groups something to belong to without asking them to train or compete in the same way. Those standards apply behind the scenes, too.

Gosling says: “The culture doesn’t just exist on the mountain. It’s a culture that pervades everything. The standards that we ask of our athletes apply to us all. That’s trust, discipline, purpose and just doing the basics brilliantly. That means making sure that everybody understands their role, whether it’s logistics, finance, commercial partnerships or welfare, and just ensuring that it sits in direct line to the athlete at the start gate.”

She draws on her previous experience commanding an RAF base supporting operations in Afghanistan: a complex team works better when people trust one another and know why their own contribution matters. At GB Snowsport, she says: “When an athlete wins, we always say it’s because of the hundreds of small things that went right beforehand.”

From new faces to established campaigners

The next test is whether the culture can keep serving athletes at different points in their careers. Riley Sharpe is in GB Snowsport’s Next Generation freestyle snowboard squad. Zoe Atkin has already won a world title and an Olympic medal. Alpine brothers Freddy, Luca and Zak Carrick‑Smith are progressing through senior and junior competition, while established names such as Andrew Musgrave and Laurie Taylor have shown younger athletes what sustained commitment looks like. Their routes differ, but each needs a programme that treats progress as more than a single result.

For Gosling, the change in mindset is clearest sign of how far GB Snowsport has come. Medals and Crystal Globes provide the evidence, but the foundations lie in the everyday work of building trust, setting standards and giving athletes the confidence to fulfil their potential.

A happy team is a winning team

A culture that puts the wellbeing of individual team members first is a key ingredient of high-performing teams. The link between wellbeing and performance is not unique to elite sport. Whether competing on the world stage or supporting clients, individuals perform best when they feel trusted, supported and able to bring their whole selves to work. That’s why McGill and Partners was delighted to be named in The Sunday Times Best Places to Work 2026 and to be awarded overall best company for wellbeing.

Vicky Gosling OBE

Chief Executive, GB Snowsport