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Athletes to the Frozen Aisle, Athletes to the Frozen Aisle… Aldi offers Team GB hopeful opportunity to train for Winter Olympics in its freezer

• Aldi is helping Team GB snowboarder Katie Ormerod prepare for the Winter Olympics by letting her train in their freezer at temperatures of up to minus 19
• Katie is set to compete in the Beijing Winter Olympics in February after recovering from a potentially career-ending injury

Supermarket and official Team GB sponsor, Aldi, has offered one of its minus 19 degrees freezers to help Olympic hopeful, Katie Ormerod acclimatise ahead of next month’s Beijing Winter Olympics.

In a well thawed out routine, snowboarder Katie, 24, completed a number of stretch and cardio exercises among Aldi’s frozen goods.

For Katie, from Brighouse in West Yorkshire, this will be her first Olympics since being forced to withdraw from the 2018 Winter Olympics during the practice rounds, due to a horrific injury which caused her heel bone to split in two. Since then, she has become the first Brit to win a World Cup snowboard title in 2020.

Katie, said: “It’s not easy to find the right training conditions in the UK for a snowboarder, so when Aldi approached me and offered an alternative space to train in, I was intrigued.

“I can’t say that I’ve ever trained in a freezer before so it was a first but who knows I may do it again – it was certainly a lot of fun! After recovering from my injury in 2018, I’m feeling stronger than ever and ready to compete for Team GB.”

Katie’s coach Hamish Knight added: “The body reacts very differently in cold weather conditions. Training in lower temperatures increases our blood flow and circulation, we burn more calories because we use more energy to heat up the body’s core, breathing in colder air works to improve our cardiovascular system and the body’s immune system is tested against the cold and therefore has to improve itself.

“Training in the right environment is vital for Katie’s progression and it’s great that Aldi was able to help.”

Julie Ashfield, Managing Director of Buying at Aldi, said: “Over the past seven years, we’ve proudly supported Team GB athletes throughout their journey, including providing food vouchers to help keep them fuelled. We’re pleased to help Team GB in any way we can and were delighted to offer our freezer as a training facility to help Katie acclimatise to the right conditions.”

Since becoming Team GB’s sponsor in 2015, Aldi has supported over 720 athletes with a whopping 221 of those going on to win bronze, silver or gold medals at the Olympics. The supermarket also helps the Team GB Nearest and Dearest programme, which supports athletes’ friends and families during games.