UK Edition
Katherine Grainger vows to consider ending GB's 'no compromise' Olympic funding formula
Dame Katherine Grainger has vowed to give “serious consideration” to a revolutionary plan that would spell the end of Great Britain’s ‘no compromise’ Olympic and Paralympic medal-winning formula.
The new chairman of UK Sport promised to examine proposals that would see every sport competing at the Games receive funding.
Grainger made the pledge after meeting representatives from 11 sports currently denied funding – archery, badminton, baseball/softball, basketball, fencing, handball, table tennis, volleyball, weightlifting, wrestling and wheelchair rugby – which joined forces this summer as part of the biggest-ever revolt against the ‘no-compromise’ model.
The sports asked Grainger to scrutinise the value of every single penny spent by UK Sport, particularly money not currently given to sports, such as that allocated to bids for major events or to the English Institute of Sport, which provides sport science and medical support services to athletes.
The sports claim £20 million could be reallocated to their elite programmes in the build-up to Tokyo 2020 and want UK Sport to consider doing so when it conducts its annual investment review in October.
Insisting she believed “every single sport does matter”, Grainger said: “We have committed to giving serious consideration to all of the issues raised by the 11 sports and to maintaining an open and ongoing dialogue.
“I would like to emphasise that there is the opportunity for any unfunded sport to present a case for investment from UK Sport at each annual review.”
Adrian Christy, the chief executive of Badminton England, which was stripped of £5.7 million last year despite hitting its medal target in Rio, said: “We firmly believe that it is possible for UK Sport to demonstrate that every sport matters by not only building on the extraordinary successes of London 2012 and Rio 2016 but by supporting all Olympic and Paralympic sports to develop their current and future medal potential.
“Various scenarios were discussed as to how this might be possible and both UK Sport and the 11 sports have committed to continuing to discuss a range of options which we hope might start to be considered as early as October as part of the annual investment review.”