UK Sport funding - stupid?

[andrew T]

is it just me or is the way that UK sport is allocating its funding a bit stupid. According to the bbc news last night the £300million given to them by the government(i think) ahead of the london 2012 and beijing 2008 olympics will be spent on the olympic sports we are best at as a country. That is the bit that to me seems totallly irrational, in that the sports we are best at are surely the ones that are least in need of increased funding. Wouldn't it make more sense to increase their funding by less and spend more on the sports we need development in. Fair enough they want to build on our success in thesed sports - athletics, sailing, boxing, cycling - but there is others maybe are more needy. The whole funding thing has probably been discusse before and i apologis eif this is the case.

any thoughts??

[Man of Kent]

Government are only interested in medals. Medals means happy, happy means votes!! Votes means Government.

[guest]

The message that came across to me was that you would only get funding if you were in with a chance of winning a medal.

This makes it very difficult for sports with no track record of winning anything at international level to obtain funding.

But without any funding they will never win medals, which goes to prove that they shouldn't be funded anyway.

[PKJ]

Yes, the funding is heavily targeted to sports with the best medal prospects. And, to be reviewed after Beijing.

But it looks as if all Olympic sports have received something, except those already very wealthy. Handball (£580k), basketball, volleyball - it'll be interesting to see the performance return from these.

Recent handball results - Moldova 34 England 18; Malta 23 England 22...

[mharky]

so maybe our best players are from Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland

[PKJ]

Infact, England 20 Scotland 17 - I didn't see results for a UK team. And England losing to the Faroe Islands.
No offence intended to any handball die-hards. I was trying to illustrate the implications of funding all Olympic sports.

[DesignatedDriver]

so maybe our best players are from Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland

who would have thought the government would be all about voter image?

"In the 2012 Olympics, we won fourteen Gold Medals, compared with 1 before we came to power. That is because we made it happen. I was behind the winning marathon runner, whispering motivational comments for 26 miles, blah blah blah..."
It takes one or two exceptional people, who have the drive and commitment to become the best at their chosen sport, to bring increase the funding supplied by the government.

Either that, or somehow increasing the public awareness. (e.g. look what Henman has done for tennis in GB - like him or not, he bought it back into public focus)

[Gross]

So I bet all the money goes to the England team not the GB team.... and it really pisses me off when people talk about the Olympics and quote examples like Moldova ... England... Olympics is GB not England.

[King Penguin]

The government is only interested in spending money on high profile (Olympic) sports with real medal prospects (so will athletics still get as much after the Commonwealth Games ?). They'd rather see no entry than a result well down the finishers. But if everyone took the view that only those with a real chance of winning should enter there'd be far fewer entries in every sport. It's also very short-sighted - how will anyone ever get to the point of being a realistic medal chance if they're never allowed to enter an international ? This whole approach seems to be in conflict with wanting to get more people actively involved in sport (health benefits etc.). There's also minority sports with world champions who get minimal funding. Just another example of joined-up consistent government thinking.....

[PKJ]

I'm shocked, do we really let Scots compete for us at the Olympics? They'll be letting the Welsh join in next.

As I understand it, UK Sport have announced some increase in funding for all Olympic sports, even those with remote medal prospects. But, the big money is targeted, and will only continue dependent on performance.

And, how would/should UK orienteering spend £580k?

[bendover]

So I bet all the money goes to the England team not the GB team.... and it really pisses me off when people talk about the Olympics and quote examples like Moldova ... England... Olympics is GB not England.

waaah england this england that..... waaaahhh its not fair.....

[JEP]

As hosts we do not have to qualify at any of the sports so we can have teams in volleyball, handball, water polo etc at which we are not too good in world terms. Part of the money for those sports ios to try to produce respectable non embarassing performance.

Seem to think Italy were pretty poor at Ice Hockey in Turin.

Greece were hopeless at water polo pre Athens but managed to put a team together that won the Gold Medal - they wouldn't have qualified unless they were hosts.

Mind you what hope handball? British handball is organised by some guy at Nottingham University on a voluntary basis and GB, England, Scotland and Wales are all pretty hopeless in world terms.Maybe NI are World Class.

[DIDSCO]

I was introduced to the president of British Handball about 5 years ago. He was visiting an elite handball club in Sweden, where I happen to coach kids in handball.

Real nice guy, but realistic. He admitted British Handball was very small, with only a handful of teams. He even said I could make the team if I wanted too...(dodgy shoulder sorry mate!) But credit to him, he was doing his research and trying hard to develop the sport. We both agreed it would be an excellent sport to introduce to school children - its a very fast moving pass and move game, which all ages from 6 upwards can play, and its high scoring. All kids love it. Anyone play it in school in Britain?

[tendon]

Maybe we should stop differentiating ourselves and become a subset of British Athletics instead (cross country is and that isn't an olympic event)? Or British Cycling? Doesn't canoe orienteering come under RYA? Three very big pots of money there

[Red Adder]

I seem to remember reading that for some reason Chris Brasher was very determined from the start to keep Orienteering out of the hands of the Athletics Administrators. Anyone know if this is true ? If so why ? Were the reasons valid ?