UK Sport to relax ‘no compromise’ approach to funding after Tokyo 2020
UK Sport is to soften its controversial “no compromise” approach to elite sport, which led to millions being funnelled into the best medal hopes while sports such as badminton and wheelchair rugby had their funding slashed, – after a public consultation.
No compromise, which was introduced 20 years ago, brought huge success at Olympics and Paralympic Games but it also led to increasing questions about whether investing in fewer and fewer sports was the right way to inspire a nation. Under UK Sport’s new blueprint for elite sport, which will come into force after the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, more athletes will be funded across more sports.
One major change is UK Sport will change its rules to allow it to fund sports with a realistic chance of making an Olympic podium in four to eight years – even if its current crop falls short. It will also set up a new “progression” funding stream to benefit upand-coming sports and athletes.
The UK Sport chair, Dame Katherine Grainger, insisted the organisation’s main focus would still be to win as many medals as possible. “People still believe in our principal objective of success in Olympic and Paralympic Games,” the London 2012 rowing gold medallist said. “What we heard quite loud and clear from the public is they have not had enough yet. They want more. Our aim is to pursue more medals by more medallists in more sports.”
The consultation revealed 61% of people agreed the current medal-winning strategy was the right approach to investment in Olympic and Paralympic sport in the UK, with 10% disagreeing. However, UK Sport acknowledged there had to be some changes to such a brutal approach with smaller sports telling them that losing all their funding was like “falling off a cliff”.
The UK Sport chief executive, Liz Nicholl, said it was still unclear how much funding the government would give for the Paris 2024 cycle but added: “We are confident government will continue to recognise the importance of elite sport and it will continue to support this world-leading system.”
She also defended the medal-focused policy, saying: “No compromise was a term we used at the outset of allocating funding – it is about a no compromise focus on excellence and the right support being given the right athletes. It has never been about winning at all costs. It has been about excellence.”