The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Tokyo could top Rio, says UK sports chief
Nicholl claims Britain are now sporting superpower after medal haul
Team GB’s athletes have made “sporting history” at Rio 2016, but their bosses believe Tokyo 2020 could be even better.
The team arrived in Brazil with the target of winning 48 medals to make Rio 2016 Britain’s best ever ‘away’ Games, but they ended up with 67 medals – two more than London’s remarkable haul – and second in the medal table ahead of China.
“We’re making sporting history – 67 medals, nearly 130 medallists, across 19 sports,” said UK Sport chief executive Liz Nicholl.
“Even the sporting superpowers haven’t done that in the past, but we are one of those now.”
British Olympic Association chief executive Bill Sweeney agreed with Nicholl and praised the teamwork and “20 years of investment” that have combined to produce “this outstanding performance”.
“Since National Lottery funding started in 1997, we have had five consecutive (summer) Olympic Games of medal growth – no other country has come close to that,” said Sweeney.
It is an oft-repeated statistic that Team GB finished 36th in the medal table, with just one gold, at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996.
A year later, UK Sport was created for the purpose of allocating National Lottery and public funding to elite Olympic and Paralympic sport.
Super-heavyweight Joe Joyce’s silver medal last night was the 700th won by Great Britain in Olympics and Paralympics since lottery funding started and Nicholl believes there is no reason to think Rio is as good as it will get.
She explained that 40% of the £275 million UK Sport gave to sports in the Olympic summer programme over the last four years is actually earmarked for Tokyo on a rolling eight-year investment plan, and the national governing bodies of various sports have already submitted their strategic plans for 2020.
“We have asked them all what is the medal potential for your sport, who are the athletes and what will it cost to win,” Nicholl added. “So we can see from the medal ranges that are in draft at the moment that there is the potential to build on the success.
“The sports will need to reflect on these Games – see which athletes retire and so on – but we are confident we can build on this.”
Sweeney was also upbeat about Team GB’s prospects in Tokyo but said competition will be even harder.
“Tokyo is going to be tougher,” Sweeney said. “We’ll have a much stronger domestic team than we saw here and for political reasons I think China will want to make a strong statement in Japan.
“The Australians won’t take this lying down either, they’ll want to come back, and you will have a full Russian delegation there.”
But having spent twice what the BOA had ever spent on its preparations for Rio, Sweeney said the same amount would be invested in Tokyo.
Much of the Rio money went on the holding camp in Belo Horizonte – widely regarded to have been the best any team here enjoyed – and in finding solutions to Rio’s various accommodation and transport “challenges”.
There are those, though, who have questioned the value for money – and even the ethics – of spending £4m per medal. Nicholl, however, is adamant that Team GB’s success is worth every penny.
“We have all seen and felt the impact of our medal success – it can inspire the nation and make us feel proud and united, no doubt about it,” she said.
“We do want to increase the impact of each medal, though, in terms of inspiration, and that is why our funded athletes have contributed 17,000 volunteer days since London and we will build on that.”