Huntly schoolgirls Elspeth Cruickshank and Sophie Forth selected to represent Team GB in cross country skiing at the Winter Youth Olympic Games in Gangwon, South Korea
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Two Huntly cross country skiers have been selected to represent Team GB at next year's Winter Youth Olympics.
Gordon Schools pupils Elspeth Cruickshank and Sophie Forth, both 16 and members of their local Huntly Nordic Ski Club, are two of 36 athletes chosen to make the trip to Gangwon, South Korea in January.
Both youngsters are part of both the British Nordic Ski Team and Snowsport Scotland's development pathway squads.
Elspeth recently finished 30th in a 5km cross country international youth competition in Norway.
A regular Scottish record breaker on the ski track, the youngster was named in the squad announced by the British Olympic Association this week.
She was joined by Gordon Schools classmate Sophie, who has already competed in three competitions this winter in Idre, Sweden, and Gaalaa and Lillehammer in Norway.
GB athletes aged between 15 and 18 will compete in 11 of the 15 sports on the programme: alpine skiing, biathlon, bobsleigh, cross-country, curling, figure skating, freestyle skiing, ice hockey, luge, short track speed skating and snowboarding.
The Youth Olympics play an important role in the development of young British athletes, providing crucial multi-sport event experience, building on Olympic values and guiding them towards realising their own Olympic ambitions.
Gangwon 2024 will be the fourth winter edition of the YOG, following Innsbruck 2012, Lillehammer 2016 and Lausanne 2020. This year’s competition is the first winter YOG to be held in Asia, with over 1,900 athletes from 40 nations expected to participate.
Four-time Olympian, Eve Muirhead, who led Team GB’s women’s curling team to gold as skip at Beijing 2022, will head up a British delegation for the first-time after announcing her retirement from competition last summer.
Unveiled as Britain's Chef de Mission for the Youth Olympics, she said: “I am incredibly proud to be leading this year’s delegation for Gangwon 2024, and it is a huge honour to prepare the team for what is a formative event in their careers.
“I’ve been to four Olympics with Team GB and have led a team throughout the majority of my curling career so I understand the emotions of performing on the world’s biggest stage. I’m thrilled I can share my knowledge and advice with these athletes dealing with the pressure at this level.”
This year’s selection of young athletes are following in the footsteps of many British Olympians who previously competed at this level, such as Muirhead’s Beijing 2022 teammates Mili Smith and Ross Whyte, who both competed at Lillehammer 2016; and Kirsty Muir, who won big air silver at Lausanne 2020 before becoming the youngest member of Team GB at Beijing 2022.
Montell Douglas, who made Team GB history by becoming the first British woman selected to compete in different sports at the Olympic Summer and Winter Games, will take on the role of the Ops & Athlete Services Coordinator for the winter YOG, using her unique experience to offer advice and support as the athletes come together as one Team GB.
She said: “I’m really excited to be heading out to South Korea for this year’s Winter Youth Olympic Games in this role. It’s a real honour for me as I’ve had quite the journey competing in both a Summer and Winter Olympic Games for Team GB, and will be a nice full circle moment supporting this new delegation of athletes having their first experience of the Olympic movement.”
The Gangwon 2024 Winter Youth Olympic Games will run between January 19 and February 1 next year.
