From Outsiders to Contenders Pat Sharples

On this episode of Performance People, Georgie Ainslie sits down with Pat Sharples, an elite head coach in winter sports, for a rare behind-the-scenes look at how teams are built. Pat reveals what really happens inside a Winter campaign. He explains how he manages 12 very different snow sport disciplines, balancing creativity in freestyle athletes with the intensity of alpine racing, all while keeping athletes confident, healthy and competition-ready. The conversation dives into mindset, risk and preparation in extreme sports, where athletes rehearse dangerous tricks hundreds of times before executing them under pressure. Pat also discusses how confidence, fear management and decision-making can be the difference between medals and missed opportunities. Away from the slopes, Pat shares how recovery, sleep, nutrition and smart performance planning have become critical, especially when competing against nations with far larger budgets. Despite those challenges, he explains why British snowsport is entering the winter cycle with optimism, and highlights the athletes to watch.

You can listen to From Outsiders to Contenders Pat Sharples online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

From Outsiders to Contenders Pat Sharples is an episode from Performance People by Georgie Ainslie.

This episode is 32:38 long.

This episode was published on Feb 3, 2026.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from Performance People when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.