UK Sport, alongside a host of celebrities via Twitter, have congratulated Jenny Jones after she made history this weekend by claiming a bronze medal in the Slopestyle Snowboarding at Sochi 2014 – Great Britain’s first ever Winter Olympic medal on the snow.
The national body invested in six Winter Olympic Sports for Sochi 2014, agreeing a target for the Great Britain team to win at least 3 medals.
The 33-year-old from Bristol finished third behind American Jamie Anderson and Finland’s Enni Rukajarvi in Sochi.
Liz Nicholl, UK Sport chief executive, said of the snowboarder: ‘UK Sport is hugely proud to have supported Jenny Jones as a member of our National Lottery funded World Class Performance Programme. It’s wonderful to see all the hard work and dedication of Jenny, her coach and support staff, realised when it mattered the most.’
‘Jenny Jones winning a historic first British Olympic medal on snow, in the new Slopestyle Snowboarding discipline, will create a huge sense of excitement and momentum within the team.’
‘UK Sport has invested over £14 million of National Lottery and Government funding into athletes representing Great Britain at the Sochi Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, and set a target of winning at least three Olympic medals, and Jenny has got the team off to a sensational start.’
Celebrities and sporting stars including Simon Pegg, Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson and Jessica Ennis-Hill also passed on their congratulations to Jenny Jones on Twitter, whose twitter handle @jennyjonessnow has jumped to 55,000.
The sport is making its debut at the Winter Olympic Games and British Ski and Snowboard has benefitted from more than £1.5m of investment from UK Sport since 2012.
