Ashlyn Bland looking to follow in golden footsteps

Skeleton star Ashlyn Bland is hoping inspiration from golden girls Lizzy Yarnold and Amy Williams can fire her to Olympic glory.

The Bishop Auckland athlete, 24, is aiming for the 2023 Winter Olympics but is not ruling out an audacious attempt to qualify for the 2026 Games in Milan-Cortina, despite only joining the skeleton programme three years ago.

The Trowbridge-based star successfully made it through the sport’s talent identification programme after originally starting out as a 200m sprinter – and hopes some wise words from former Olympic gold medallists can make a difference on the ice.

“I try not to put too much pressure on myself to get to 2026,” said Bland, who has been selected to be part of Aldi’s Rising Stars programme, an initiative with SportsAid that provides talented young athletes with financial support, recognition and personal development opportunities.

“Hopefully it is not too much pressure having family there, because normally they are not with me.

I just want to keep doing well and progressing - I try not to look at it as seven years, it’s more how can I improve every year.

“It’s a big commitment, because you are not even guaranteed to go but I set smaller goals.

“You have confidence that you are in a good programme - we have had a lot of success, Lizzy Yarnold comes in and gives us some mentoring, and Amy Williams is still quite involved, and it is good to have them to look up to.

“With what they have achieved, it feels like I could also achieve that if it has come from the British programme before.”

Each athlete on the Rising Stars programme, which was launched with SportsAid last year, receives funding to help towards costs such as travel, accommodation, equipment and nutrition, with Aldi also delivering workshop sessions on a range of topics to help nurture athletes for their sporting endeavours and beyond.

This includes top tips on healthy eating and performance nutrition, restful sleep, managing mental wellbeing, social media training and making the most of working with the media.

In addition, the talented young athletes, who have been nominated to SportsAid by the governing bodies of their respective sports, play a key role in the promotion of the supermarket’s ‘Get Set to Eat Fresh’ programme, which aims to educate children on the importance of a healthy diet.

To date this partnership has reached over 2.2 million young people with a target to educate an extra one million children by the end of 2024.

Bland made her Europa Cup debut last season, racing internationally across Europe and is now targeting a full season at that level next year.

And Bland revealed she has already learned plenty from competing on the ice, something that will stand her in good stead as she targets an outside bid for the 2026 Games.

“Last year was my first competitive season for GB. I did a couple of competitions last year and that ended in February,” she added.

“I will do a full Europa Cup season, compete eight times across Europe and get a world ranking.

“The first season was good. It’s coping with the pressure to perform, competing for GB for the first time, and I feel like I am still quite a beginner in the sport, so it was good to get some exposure to competition.

“It was really good experience because I feel like I can really build on that now this year.

“Training is very different to competing - you have to bring your best race on race day. It’s just coping with that expectation, not putting too much pressure on yourself and bringing your best performance – which I did on some occasions and not on others. That was good experience to bring forward to this year.

“In the next year, it is about gaining more experience in the Europa Cup. I would like to try and push for some wider podiums and maybe even medals.

“The 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan is coming up, and I would have to progress quite quickly to get there but it is still an aim of mine. Beyond that, 2030 is probably my goal.

“It’s hard because at the beginning part of our race we sprint, so you have to get quite hyped up for that, but when sliding you have to be really relaxed – it’s finding that balance.

“I had both extremes this year and found a middle ground towards the end of the season.”

Aldi is the Official Supermarket Partner of Team GB and ParalympicsGB and have partnered with Team GB since 2015, ParalympicsGB since 2022 and will be supporting them through to Paris 2024