Skip to main contentAccess keys helpA-Z index

[an error occurred while processing this directive]
| Help
---------------
CHOOSE A SPORT
RELATED BBC SITES
Last Updated: Tuesday, 12 July 2005, 19:02 GMT 20:02 UK
Call for Olympic funding revamp
British gold medallist Chris Hoy
Chris Hoy won one of GB's two cycling golds in Athens
Britain's sporting directors have called for a simpler funding system and an additional �20m to deliver more gold medals at the 2012 London Olympics.

They want funding brought under one roof rather than from individual groups like UK Sport and Sport England.

"We are looking to have our biggest and most successful team in living memory," chief executive Simon Clegg.

"But it is important for us to face up to this challenge."

Clegg added that the feedback he had got at a meeting on Tuesday from the various sporting directors had been very positive.

"We had good results in Sydney and Athens and those sort of results are the benchmarks by which we will be judged in Beijing in 2008 and London in 2012," he said.

British cycling performance director Dave Brailsford, whose funding comes from five different sources, saw his squad come away with plenty of success from the Athens Olympics and Paralympics.

" I don't want my coaches to be distracted by anything else and the whole . question of funding needs very clear alignment," he said.

We have done a lot of work on looking at how many athletes should be funded to 2012
UK Sport's Liz Nicholl

"I would like to see a simplification of the funding mechanism so I can make every single pound I get into cycling sweat for a medal.

"What is going to win us medals is the relationship between the coach and the athlete and I'm glad to report there has been a fantastic willingness on the part of all those here to make these alignments happen."

Yachting's John Derbyshire agreed as he said: "The aim is to turn fourths into thirds and seconds into golds.

"We must make sure the team we send there have the opportunity to do that.

"We are not looking for an open chequebook here, we accept we need to be accountable."

Liz Nicholl, the head of the performance team at UK Sport, said that the �47m a year Government funding used to target Olympic medals through high performance funding needed to be increased to �67m.

That would increase the number of potential Olympians backed from around 320 to 550.

"We have done a lot of work on looking at how many athletes should be funded to 2012 and the management of the investment has got to be through one organisation," she said.

Nicholl insisted it was crucial to eliminate "waste in the system so the right decisions are taken as to which athletes and which sports are funded".

It is planned to increase funding for sports like gymnastics, who had their grants cut, and team sports like basketball - who would be offered automatic qualification in 2012 as the host nation.


RELATED INTERNET LINKS:
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites


E-mail services | Sport on mobiles/PDAs

MMIX

Back to top

Sport Homepage | Football | Cricket | Rugby Union | Rugby League | Tennis | Golf | Motorsport | Boxing | Athletics | Snooker | Horse Racing | Cycling | Disability sport | Olympics 2012 | Sport Relief | Other sport...

BBC Sport Academy >> | BBC News >> | BBC Weather >>
About the BBC | News sources | Privacy & Cookies Policy | Contact us
bannerwatch listenbbc sport