Olympic blow over Beijing funding cuts

14 April 2012

British Olympic chiefs today urged the Government not to base future funding for our top athletes on one set of Games results.

The Government's spending watchdog, the National Audit Office, today published their findings into UK Sport's World Class Pe r formance Programme (WCPP), the funding system for our Olympic athletes.

The report calls for tough decisions after examining Britain's performance at last summer's Athens Olympics. It concludes that fringe sports, such as gymnastics and judo, which failed to win medals in Athens, should lose funding to ensure successful sports such as sailing and rowing receive more cash.

UK Sport responded by saying they were planning to target funding at sportsmen and women with a "realistic chance" of making the podium at Beijing in 2008.

But Simon Clegg, chief executive of the British Olympic Association, said: "We must be careful not to use one set of results solely to determine the future funding strategy. The thing is to get the balance right between short-term, mid-term and long-term success."

The WCPP handed out £ 83.5million between 2001-05 and that money played a big part in making last year's Olympics Britain's most successful Games for 20 years, with a total haul of 30 medals, said the NAO.

But performance in sports which received Lottery money was "mixed", with six Olympic disciplines - gymnastics, judo, triathlon, shooting, taekwondo and weight-lifting - delivering no medals despite receiving £12.4m in funding between them.

Four Paralympic sports - wheelchair rugby, sailing, boccia and wheelchair fencing - produced no medals despite £1.3m funding from the programme.

Concentrating Lottery funding on sports with a track record of success could help Britain build on the victories of stars such as Kelly Holmes and avoid flops such as swimming's world 200m backstroke champion Katy Sexton, who finished seventh despite being hotly tipped for gold.

The report adds that UK Sport should consider reducing the number of athletes funded by the WCPP, focusing on fewer sports, or even introducing performance bonuses for medal-winners.

"There is scope for UK Sport to improve management of the funding programme," said the NAO.

"UK Sport should be prepared to take tough decisions based on performance about which sports merit funding and on what scale."

UK Sport is shortly due to agree individual funding packages for the four years of preparation for Beijing. Resources from the WCPP are already focused on the "priority" Olympic disciplines of athletics, cycling, rowing and sailing, which received 55 per cent of the money in the run-up to Athens and delivered 61 per cent of the medals - including eight of Britain's nine golds.

Acting chief executive Liz Nicholl said UK Sport have already drawn up a performance investment strategy to ensure that "funding is targeted at those athletes who have a realistic chance of making the podium in 2008, with more resources being available for fewer athletes".

"Our task is to make sure that we build on the success of Athens and continue to sharpen our focus, in order that we can enjoy more medal success in Beijing," she said.

"There is no doubt that the advent of Lottery funding has enabled us to take the package of support we can offer to our leading sports to a new level, as the results from Sydney and Athens clearly demonstrate.

"But British sport will collectively have to up its game again to improve in Beijing and UK Sport must play its part in full."

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Olympic blow over Beijing funding cuts

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