Great Britain brings two new skiers to the national cross-country team for the coming season, opening up new opportunities in championships.

Great Britain is strengthening its national cross-country team with two men skiers for the 2022/23 season. Thus, the British national team now consists of five skiers, all men. 

Young and promising

The two new skiers are Gabriel Gledhill and Joe Davies. 

19-year-old Gabriel Gledhill is a first-year senior this season. He has delivered several strong placings in the junior class, including two third places from Östersund this winter, and therefore gets to try out for the senior national team this year. 

Joe Davies (21) joins the British national team from Canada. Davies is half British and can choose which nation he wants to represent. 

“Joe raced U23 races for Canada this winter and has delivered several podiums and top-10 positions from FIS races in North America with robust participation. He is young and has a lot of potential, so it will be very nice to get him into the team,” says the team’s veteran Andrew Musgrave to Langrenn.com.  

Opening up new opportunities

Before, the British national team consisted of three men skiers who are all continuing this season: Andrew Musgrave (32), Andrew Young (30), and James Clugnet (25). 

Now a total of five skiers are on the British national team for the coming season, all based in Norway: Musgrave and Young are based in Trondheim, Clugnet and Gledhill live in Lillehammer, and Davies is moving to Norway within a short time. 

This means that everyone has access to good snow and training conditions and that it is relatively easy to get together and match each other and other skiers from the World Cup level. 

Expanding the skiers also opens new opportunities for the British national team in international competitions and championships. With five athletes, the team can now field its relay team in the men’s class. 

“Being able to field a relay team has been a dream for us for a long time. Now we get opportunities to do that,” says Musgrave.

For the time being, completely without support 

The team’s expansion comes even though UK Sports has decided they will no longer provide financial support to any national skiing teams in cross-country, para cross-country, or alpine skiing. 

But even if the national team no longer receives the financial support they have had in recent years, Musgrave and the other skiers still aim to continue their efforts at the World Cup level. 

“We just have to do it with less money,” says Musgrave. 

Read also:

The British Cross-Country National Team Is In Danger Of Losing All Support