Winter Olympics 2026: Team GB 25 behind world’s best teams in short track

Britain does not have international quality tracks to host short track events – such as an arena with soft padding around barriers in case of accidents – which meant Tracy trained with the Dutch national team ahead of the Olympics.

Eli says there are no plans to improve the facilities, due to a lack of funding, as well as the increasing popularity of other winter sports.

“If you do that [install padding] “You can’t play hockey on the rink, you can’t get pucks with pads, so you reduce the use of the facility,” he said. “Ice hockey is a huge participatory sport in the UK.

“We had that in the run-up to Pyeongchang, a hybrid system – the pads are put in place during the week and then taken out on the weekend when the hockey team is playing.

“But it was costing £30,000 a week because of the amount of work involved in getting the barriers in and out.

“In addition, the cost of operating rinks in the past few years has gone through the roof, the cost of freezing ice and the price of energy.”

Instead, short track will have to be smart about funding and facilities – and Ely says they can look forward to a sport in which Britain has enjoyed Olympic success.

Two of Britain’s three gold medals at Milan Cortina were in a skeleton, despite training on a single track in Bath without ice.

However, a clear talent identification and training program led to success, followed by funding to allow greater steps in design and recruitment of world-class coaches.

“From a structural perspective, they may not have a lot of access to trails, but what they do, they do very well,” he said. “So we can learn from them.”

Short track is currently funded as a development sport, and Eli says they are looking forward to having a stronger and bigger team for the 2030 French Alps.