A lasting legacy for all Olympic sports

May 17, 8908

By John Steele

Sir, To suggest as Matthew Syed did in his piece on Olympic athlete funding (“At £12m per gold medal, it is time this sports subsidy racket was abolished ”,Oct 16 ) that UK Sport’s overall £235 million investment over the past four years was in the 19 gold medals won by British Olympians in Beijing is wrong. The majority of UK Sport’s investment was aimed at delivering medal-winning performances at the London Games in 2012. To therefore divide that figure by the gold medals delivered in Beijing is a crude and essentially meaningless exercise.

The actual spend on the athletes that represented Team GB in Beijing was nearer £90 million, or just over £1.25 million per year per sport — less than many Premiership footballers’ annual wage.

UK Sport is working not just to support a performance we can be proud of in 2012, but to do so in a way that will provide a lasting legacy for all Olympic and Paralympic sports. That ultimately means that 26 Olympic and 20 Paralympic sports will be in the full glare of the spotlight in four years’ time, providing a whole host of inspirational moments for future sporting generations — be they in athletics or cycling, swimming or the Paralympic sport of Boccia. Every medal success provides motivation for people of all ages to get active.

UK Sport has been charged with delivering medal-winning Olympic and Paralympic teams and, as many observers have noted, the success of the Games in London will be judged on how we perform. The results to date tend to suggest that our uncompromising approach is both effective and delivering.

Source: Times Online

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