‘Elite athletes can’t pay the bills with patriotism’ says Peaty
OLYMPIC swimming champion Adam Peaty has urged the government to do more to support elite athletes, claiming: “They can’t pay their bills with patriotism.”
The 26-year-old Loughborough-based breaststroke hero gave evidence to MPs alongside Paralympians Lauren Rowles and Ellie Robinson about the support they have received during their careers from UK Sport, which distributes National Lottery and Exchequer funding, writes Jamie Gardner, PA Chief Sports Reporter.
Great Britain won 65 medals at the summer’s Tokyo Olympics compared with 15 at the 1996 Atlanta Games – a year before Lottery funding was introduced.
Peaty, a three-times Olympic gold medallist, called for athletes to be given greater funding stability, and said the onus was on the government to step up and offer that support.
“When you go to the Olympics and we’re third, second on the medal table, the government will get all the credit,” he told the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport committee.
“The government and the country reap those benefits (of success at Olympic and Paralympic Games).
“We represent that, we fly that flag very proudly, but we can’t pay our bills with patriotism.
“I’m very well supported by other companies and sponsors, but more needs to be done from the government, definitely.”
Peaty said even more funding was required at grassroots level to avoid future Olympic and Paralympic champions being lost.
“(The government) needs to fund the grassroots, it needs to invest in leisure centres, it needs to invest in coaches and everything in between,” he said.
“The lottery can only do so much. I think the government can do more to support the elite and definitely, definitely the grassroots.
“Stop closing leisure centres, because it will bite you.”
Peaty agreed with committee member Steve Brine’s assertion that government investment in sport was “minuscule”, and that it used the lottery funding as “a way out” of providing more.
Peaty said: “I’m not a politician. I don’t know where the money’s gonna come from, but I know if you’ve got a healthier nation, a fitter nation, a happier nation and a valued nation, that return on investment is going to be great.”
The government announced in August it was providing £77.4 million a year to elite Olympic and Paralympic programmes in the three-year period up to the Paris Games, in addition to lottery funding.
provided The government £220 million and to the support Lottery community combined clubs and exercise centres through the coronavirus virus pandemic, distributed by Sport England.
A DCMS spokesperson said: “It is not right to suggest £345 million of taxpayer and National Lottery funding invested in our Olympic and Paralympic teams is minuscule.
“Almost 40 per cent of this comes d irect ly from
the government and the t level investment of public is reflected by the success of our teams in Tokyo.
“We have increased the government’s funding by over 40 per cent ahead of Paris 2024 to the tune of £232 million.
“We have also provided an unprecedented £1 billion lion of public money to ensure the survival of the