The move to bring the two organisations together as one has been ongoing for almost a year now with Christopher Rodrigues appointed chairman of the two bodies as far back as July 2013.

Since coming into his role as chairman, Rodrigues has put together a newly constituted BBSA board comprising the two chairs of British Bobsleigh and British Skeleton and four independent non-executive directors - Gareth Davies, Paul Tollet, Simon Bax and Mike Noble.

The appointment process will be led by the BBSA, with Rodrigues at the helm, and it hopes the preferred candidate will be in post by early summer of this year.

"This move very much represents the start of the amalgamation process proper," said Rodrigues.

"I am delighted that we already have such a strong board in place to lead the new BBSA, and to build on the incredible successes both British Bobsleigh and British Skeleton have achieved up until now in their own right.

"We are looking for an exceptional chef executive candidate to put our ambitious plans into practice.

"British winter sports are on the rise following Sochi, and I envisage a very bright and strong future ahead for both sports."

The merge of British Skeleton and British Bobsleigh will hope to build on the success of Lizzie Yarnold at the 2014 Sochi Winter Games ©Getty Images



The chairmen of both British Skeleton and British Bobsleigh have backed the search for the chief executive with Andrew Ridgway, chairman of British Bobsleigh, saying: "This is a very exciting time for our sports and we welcome the appointment of a chief executive who will be able to lead the delivery of the full range of responsibilities of a national governing body.

"I am sure that the wider membership of both organisations will warmly welcome this development."

Clifton Wrottesley, chairman of British Skeleton, added: "The BBSA now has an extremely strong board in place, hand-picked from some of the finest talent in the UK to cover every aspect of governance and performance in our burgeoning sports of skeleton and bobsleigh.

"This in turn gives everyone involved in the process the confidence needed to merge two organisations that have unrivalled potential, can continue to be truly world beating, and if their ambitious plans are supported and bear fruit, will remain so for Pyeongchang 2018 and beyond.

"The hiring of a BBSA chief executive will go a long way to securing the merger of British Skeleton and British Bobsleigh and consolidate the one key element to British Skeleton's continued success - sustained performance."

At a recent BBSA Board meeting, it was also confirmed that two separate performance programmes will be dedicated to British Skeleton and British Bobsleigh over the next Olympic cycle – through to Pyeongchang 2018.

Gary Anderson will continue in his role as performance director for British Bobsleigh, and it is envisaged the new performance director for British Skeleton will be announced imminently following the decision of Nigel Laughton to move on from the sport and seek his next performance challenge post-Sochi.

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