RT Cuts are ruthless
GAIL EMMS reacted with rage yesterday after badminton was one of five sports to have their UK Sport funding cut confirmed.
Badminton joins archery, fencing, table tennis and weightlifting to miss out on £265million allocated for Olympic sports.
Emms, runner-up at the 2004 Olympics, said: “We are at a point of such ruthlessness, we’ve got to be careful about how we view our sports. Are we viewing it like a Simon Cowell reality TV version – if you’re not getting gold we don’t want to know – or is it about if there’s a chance, let’s help people come through?” UK Sport chief Liz Nicholl defended the approach, which has produced record medal returns at the last two Olympics, and added: “The sports that made representations to our board were unable to provide any compelling new evidence that changed our assessment of their medal potential for Tokyo.”