On Friday, UK Sport announced an investment programme in High-Performance sport which will deliver funding of £352 million (€382 million) across a record number of 43 sports.
The programme is multi-annual and will run-up to the Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2024.
The money is provided by the UK Government and the UK National Lottery. 36 sports which were already on the programme will see their investment rise and there are an additional seven sports added with what are called ‘Progression Investments.’ These will include Climbing, Skateboarding and Surfing that have been added to the Olympic programmes as well as Basketball, Fencing, Table Tennis and Weightlifting.
Each of these seven sports added to the funding will receive between £1.35 million and £1.67 million over the course of the next four years.
Winners
The biggest winners in terms of funding are Cycling with £27.6 million, Rowing with £22.2 million, Athletics with £21.7 million and sailing with £21.3 million.
The overall funding is down on what was available to 18 key Olympic sports in the Tokyo cycle, though the £61.8 million being channelled towards 18 key Paralympic sports is up by 10 per cent.
A new £3m fund will open in 2021 to support sports that did not secure Progression investment with the costs of forming and fielding national squads.
This will enable athletes in these sports to attend major international championships and access other events that form the critical path to the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Challenging
“2020 has been a hugely challenging year for all of us, but I’m proud to have seen Olympic and Paralympic sport and athletes playing their part in communities up and down the country,” said Chair of UK Sport, Dame Katherine Grainger.
“The postponement of the Tokyo Games has also shown just how much we’ve all missed coming together to cheer on our brilliant athletes.”
“Over the past two decades, we have established strong foundations on which to build the next iteration of this Great British sporting success story.”
“The next chapter of this exciting journey is all about how we win on the global stage. I want our sporting community to be known internationally for its people-first approach and also known for upholding the highest standards of integrity.”
“I’m delighted that thanks to the support of the Government and The National Lottery players, we’ve been able to set out clear support for our Olympic and Paralympic sports, to help them get ready for Tokyo and beyond.”
Ambition
“Today’s decisions signal our future ambition to broaden the areas in which we achieve global success and deepening our societal impact, added CEO Sally Munday.
“This means supporting more sports via the World Class Programme and Progression Funding than ever before, as well as welcoming more athletes and staff from varied backgrounds into our high-performance sporting community so we better reflect the diversity of the country we represent.”
“As a sector we must be better at reaching, connecting and inspiring the British public in order to deepen our societal impact in communities across the country, using the exceptional power of sport and our platform in the British consciousness.”
Sport for Business Partners
