Derek Prentice awarded MBE in Royal Honours List
London (FIL/11 Feb 2025) Derek Prentice, the honorary vice president of the Great British Luge Association, has been awarded a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) as part of the British Royal Family’s annual New Year’s honours list.
There are 15 kinds of royal honours in total with MBEs being awarded for someone’s 'honour for outstanding achievement or service to the community'.
Prentice received his “For services to luge” which have lasted 49 years in the sport and counting as a former athlete, coach, team manager, president, and now vice president of Great Britain’s federation in addition to his role as a member of the Control Commission for the FIL.
Over a 1000 people across all industries were honoured in the list based on their “significant impact in a field such as the arts, sciences, charity, sports or public services”.
“I was both surprised and very thankful to have been both nominated and approved for this award particularly as the nominations come from colleagues and other officials in British Luge and Olympic sports,” said Prentice who raced at the Lake Placid 1980 Olympic Games where he finished 22nd in the men’s singles and 14th in the men’s doubles with Christopher Dyason. “During this time, I have felt privileged to be a member of the Luge family and have always felt that I have received far more from our sport than I could ever have contributed so the award is definitely an added bonus.
“British Luge I am pleased to say continues and I hope will go from strength to strength under our new Presidency of Mark Armstrong and CEO Gav Arnold with our very valued team of volunteer coaches and managers.”
His and Dyason’s doubles result is the closest Great Britain have got to an Olympic podium, but Prentice firmly believes there is exciting development ahead for the country especially with Canadian based junior lugers Kaia Hatton and Teyha Bayliss regularly performing in the junior World Cup.
Nevertheless, further growing luge in Great Britain, a country with far less infrastructure than other European nations is still the number one priority for Prentice.
“Being a smaller nation in the sport of Luge without easy access to a track has meant the last 50 years have not been without challenges particularly with funding and recruitment meaning to date we have not been able to compete for the top positions internationally, although our Interservice and National competitions ensure that we are still very active on a national level.
“We hope though that we have always provided creditable athletes for international competitions, and I am very proud of the fact that we have been able to have athletes qualify for and participate in most of the Olympic Winter Games during that time.
“In addition, some of our former athletes have now significant positions within the FIL including Claire Del Negro and Mark Hatton who will be well known to most of you,” he added.
A date for the ceremony of Prentice’s MBE has not yet been confirmed.
