UK Sport pledge £352m and vow to remove ‘bad people’
UK SPORT have warned that ‘bad people are not welcome’ in the Olympic and Paralympic system after announcing a record £352million budget to take them through to Paris 2024.
The elite sport funding agency will split the money — a small increase on the £345m pot they had for the Tokyo Games cycle — between 43 sports, including climbing, skateboarding and surfing for the first time.
But UK Sport also insist they are ditching their ‘no compromise’ approach to winning medals and will instead place more focus on the treatment of athletes after a string of welfare scandals. ‘We are still very focused on wanting to win — but we want to win the right way,’ said UK Sport chief executive Sally Munday.
‘We believe that athletes can win medals and have a really incredibly positive experience. It’s not either/or.
‘I want our sporting community to be known internationally for its people-first approach, and also known for upholding the highest standards of integrity. ‘There is simply no place in our sports family for anyone who doesn’t want to play by the right ethics and the right standards. ‘Bad people will try to infiltrate and be part of our system. We don’t want them.
‘They are not welcome. We will ask everyone in the system to work with us to get rid of those people. If that requires us to remove money from sports, then that is what we will do.’ Gymnastics was the latest sport to be hit by allegations of abuse and bullying this year and is the subject of an independent review. Their budget has decreased from £13.4m to £12.5m but Munday says sports face major cuts in future if they do not uphold standards.
UK sport chair Dame Katherine Grainger added: ‘Success for us moving forward will be all about how we win. The integrity of high-performance sport demands it. We have to be winning well, otherwise the winning itself matters less.’
No sports have had funding cut altogether, with cycling awarded the most — £27.6m up from £24.6m. Badminton and archery also had increases, while rowing and sailing suffered small cuts.