The British Bobsleigh & Skeleton Association (BBSA), the UK Sports Institute (UKSI) and Artemis Applied Technologies (AATL) have joined forces in a groundbreaking project to prepare Britain’s skeleton athletes for the upcoming Olympic Winter Games. This collaboration highlights how targeted innovation and creative problem-solving are helping British athletes compete on equal terms with winter-climate nations.

The BBSA has an established record of success on the international stage, regularly challenging the world’s best in skeleton and bobsleigh, despite operating without a home track fewer resources and with less time on ice than their rivals. Their willingness to innovate - investing in cutting-edge simulation and novel athlete development strategies - has allowed the team to turn constraints into competitive advantage.

Building on PhD research at the University of Southampton, AATL in collaboration with the BBSA and the UKSI have pushed the limits of what is possible with fully immersive simulation training in ice sports. Known for high-performance sailing innovations, AATL has adapted its advanced vehicle and dynamic simulation systems to meet the unique demands of ice tracks, creating an athlete in the loop simulator that allows athletes to familiarise themselves with the demands of specific tracks, refine split-second decision-making, and build the confidence needed to perform under pressure while minimising risk, cost and physical demand while increasing track time and coach-athlete communication.

As well as making the podium at five of the last six Olympics, British Skeleton have enjoyed a stellar few seasons on the world stage, winning no fewer than 60 World Championship, World Cup, Overall World Cup and European Championship medals via multiple members of both their men’s and women’s teams over the past three years.

Commenting on the value of this collaboration, Dave Short, Programme Manager for British Skeleton stated,

We believe our collaboration with Artemis and the UKSI will have a really positive impact at a critical time in our preparations for the upcoming Olympic Winter Games.

Artemis mirror the values we hold dear here at British Skeleton and the way in which they have understood our requirements and regularly gone above and beyond to make sure those requirements are met has been hugely appreciated. They have built on the brilliant work we have undertaken with the University of Southampton and we are grateful for both the expertise and enthusiasm with which they have approached the project.

We have enjoyed a really successful Olympic cycle so far, winning multiple major medals every year, and this project forms part of our final preparations leading into Cortina 2026. 

We know that drawing on the expertise of others can often make the difference between winning and losing - particularly in skeleton where athletes are separated by hundredths of a second - and this collaboration is a great example of a coming together of a world-leading technology expert and world-leading performance programme striving for long-term, sustainable success.

For AATL, the project illustrates how expertise proven in one high-performance sport can translate to another. Technical Director, James Roche commented:

At Artemis Applied Technologies, we combine innovation, engineering and practical application in ways that create measurable performance gains. Working closely with the BBSA and UKSI has shown how our advanced simulation capabilities can be adapted to optimise performance in winter sports.

This collaboration demonstrates how complex engineering solutions can deliver tangible benefits to athletes. It highlights how our simulation capabilities can be applied across multiple sports and underscores the broader potential to drive innovation across high-performance sectors.”

Stating how collaborative innovation can accelerate athlete performance and create a competitive edge,” Dave Thomas, Senior Performance Innovation Consultant at the UKSI, said,

As the world changes around us, the UKSI’s ability to work in close partnership with sports like the BBSA, and foster long-standing relationships with academic and industrial partners such as AATL, will allow us to continue to convert multi-cycle investment in targeted research and innovation into on-field performance advantage, and benefit from the UK’s position as a leader in technology and innovation.

This project in particular has built on several cycles of boundary-pushing effort and research from a great many brilliant people, delivering impact and knowledge along the way, and now culminating in a tool that allows athletes to fine-tune their preparation and readiness for key competitions and the nuances of different tracks in different conditions.

With access to winter-sports environments becoming increasingly scarce and costly, the ability to conduct highly-specific race preparation in our daily training environment will become a point of difference over competitor nations in cycles to come, turning what was once a constraint into a significant performance advantage.

As the Winter Olympics approach, this collaboration highlights how the UKSI, the BBSA, and Artemis Applied Technologies are working together to push boundaries and explore every opportunity for performance improvement. The collaboration has undoubtedly strengthened athlete preparation and readiness, positioning Britain’s skeleton athletes to compete strongly for medals.