Right To Play charity and GB Short Track Speed Skating team announce partnership

The charity Right To Play and the GB Short Track Speed Skating team have announced a new one year partnership, which will see the GB Short Track team support Right To Play's fundraising events and will be used as a platform to raise awareness for the cause.

Financial backing from the London-based business, tax and wealth management company Reeves will provide a timely boost for the team as the build up to the Games, next February in Sochi, Russia is getting underway now with pre-season training.

International children's charity Right To Play works to use the transformative power of play to educate and empower children facing adversity.

The charity has strong links to the Winter Olympics - its founder and CEO, Johann Olav Koss, won three gold medals in speed skating at the 1994 Winter Olympics. Right To Play also has a number of winter sports Athlete Ambassadors, including the skier Chemmy Alcott, skeleton bobsled racer Shelley Rudman and their latest addition, Elise Christie, who is part of the GB Short Track team and a strong contender for Sochi 2014.

Meanwhile, with 280 days to go until the Games, the GB Short Skate team is back training on the ice following valuable rest ahead the final stage of the four year training cycle for the Winter Olympics. GB Short Track performance director Stuart Horsepool said: "We are delighted to have a new sponsor in an Olympic year. The sport relies almost completely on UK Sport Lottery funding, so the addition of commercial sponsorship from a company like Reeves is invaluable to us when it comes to the detailed planning of Olympic preparations.

"The interest in the team from major corporations such as Reeves, and reputable charities like Right To Play, is a credit to our athletes and their performances last season. We had a great season and we are looking forward to the Olympic year".

Highlights from last season included Elise Christie finishing the season ranked world number one in the 1000m and being the first British woman to win a medal in the World Championships, a European bronze medal for Charlotte Gilmartin, a silver medal for junior Kathryn Thompson at the European Youth Winter Olympic Festival and the men’s relay team challenging for gold at the Olympic test event in Sochi.

Elise Christie said: "It's great that Reeves want to support the team. Knowing that people believe in us enough to put money into the sport is a big confidence boost in itself".

Two-time Olympian Jon Eley added: "Knowing that big names like Reeves think we can achieve things and believe in us in an Olympic year enough to get involved is great. It's also a big honour for us to be involved with Right To Play. They are a brilliant charity and the work they do around the world is great, so being a part of it is very special".

Sochi 2014 will not be the first Olympics for number of skaters vying for selection at qualifying events in November. Jon Eley will be looking for a hat trick of Olympics having previously competed in both 2006 and 2010; Paul Stanley will be hoping to make Sochi his second Olympics after injury ruled him out of Vancouver in 2010; while Elise Christie and Jack Whelbourne made their Olympic debut in 2010.

Fergus Ross, Marketing & Sales Director at Reeves, said: "We hope that our backing and professional expertise in all matters business, tax and wealth will help the GB Short Track athletes as they train to compete on the global stage and at the very highest level next year in Sochi.

"We see the talent of the individuals in GB Short Track and their amazing teamwork and we are inspired. It is a privilege to be involved with such a dedicated group of people, not just the athletes but their support teams too. We are all only as strong as the teams around us; Reeves is delighted to be a part of that big British team!"

Johann Olav Koss, who was himself an Olympic champion speed skater, commented: "Right To Play is delighted to announce this new partnership with the GB Short Track team and some of GB's top Sochi medal hopefuls. As the team competes on the world stage, they will be role models to the million children around the world we educate and empower each week through sport and play, and will have a life changing impact on them as they support us raising money for the programmes".