Pat Sharples wins Coach Award at UK Sport PLx Awards

GB Snowsport Head Coach, Pat Sharples, took home the prestigious Coach Award at last night’s 2023 PLx Awards

We are delighted that Pat Sharples’ work in driving Britain’s high-performance ski and snowboard programmes was recognised last night at the 2023 UK Sport PLx Awards.

Pat, who was named in a shortlist of three British high-performance coaches, was voted winner by the Awards judging panel after a year in which Britain delivered a record number of World Cup, World Championships, and X Games podiums across the 2022/23 season.

The Coach Award, which recognises a current coach who has challenged themselves to achieve exceptional and inspiring performances in the past year, is one of the highest levels of recognition within the British high-performance sport community and provides richly-deserved recognition of the impact of Pat’s work on British skiing and snowboarding.

Pat said:

“I’m just gobsmacked, I wasn’t expecting this at all. For me coaching is the greatest job in the world; if it wasn’t my job, I’d still be doing it in my free time. I’ve loved the whole journey, coaching youngsters on the dry slopes right through to being able to do this at the highest level.”

Pat also paid tribute to the wider high-performance coaching community, saying:

“I don’t think I’d be up here without the coach leadership course by UK Sport, all of the support that I got from the coach developers, the people who ran that course, who put that on for me and all the other coaches who were on the programme. They’re all now friends, and I know I can reach out to them at any time. It’s a real team effort.”

Everyone at GB Snowsport wishes Pat warm congratulations on this much-deserved victory.