 MEDAL
PROSPECTS TO BENEFIT AS WINTER OLYMPIC AND PARALYMPIC FUNDING
INCREASED TO £6 MILLION
UK Sport today announced a £6 million package to support
Winter Olympic and Paralympic sport up to and beyond the Vancouver
Games in 2010. The money, a 20% increase on the funding allocated
over the Turin cycle, will be distributed across seven Olympic
and two paralympic disciplines on the basis of UK Sport’s
‘No Compromise’ investment strategy. This targets
resources predominately at sports and athletes considered
to be genuine medal prospects in four years time.
Bob skeleton, Great Britain’s most successful winter
sport in recent years, having won medals in Turin and Salt
Lake City, receives the largest award of almost £2 million.
This will fund world class pathway support such as coaching,
competition, training, equipment, science and medicine and
all the associated travel and accommodation. It also provides
athletes with a personal award (APA) to contribute to their
living and personal sporting costs over the next four years.
The other major recipient is curling. UK Sport’s investment
has almost trebled to almost £1.1 million to fund both
their programme and athlete personal awards. This is in addition
to the support provided by sportscotland and the Scottish
Institute of Sport. Figure skating is being funded for the
first time in recent years, and will receive £496,000
to support the development of Ice Dance pair John and Sinead
Kerr.
Paralympic Winter sport support more than doubles to £350,000.
Following the success of its silver medal winning wheelchair
curling team in Turin, that sport will receive £270,000
of this investment, whilst the remaining £80,000 will
go to Alpine skiing.
Liz Nicholl, UK Sport’s Director of Performance
said:
“Our approach to Winter Olympic and Paralympic funding
is unashamedly based on our ‘No Compromise’ approach.
“The good news is we have been able to increase the
overall funding for winter sports by 20% compared with the
previous four year cycle, but we have to allocate this to
those sports that have shown they can deliver and have the
future potential to win medals on the world stage. We have
to be realistic, Great Britain will never be a top winter
sports nation but we can achieve success if we target our
investment effectively at the right athletes.”
Minister for Sport Richard Caborn welcomed the announcement:
“This increased investment will go a long way to helping
our Winter Olympic and Paralympic medal hopefuls. I hope to
see more Shelley Rudmans on the podium of the 2010 Games.”
The ‘No Compromise’ investment strategy allocates
athlete podium places and programme investment based on a
combination of results at the Turin 2006 winter games and
recent track record of success, along with an assessment of
medal potential for Vancouver 2010. In 2006-2007 there will
be 14 Winter Olympic athletes, in addition to the curling
squads, in receipt of podium programme support worth, on average,
£45,000 per athlete.
Part of Bob Skeleton and Short Track Speed Skating’s
award includes investment at world class development level
(to support talented athletes for the future) and nominated
athletes in both, along with Figure Skating, Bobsleigh, Snowboard,
Alpine Skiing, Luge and the two Paralympic disciplines, will
receive a total of 41 TASS 2012 scholarships worth up to £10,000
each for individual athletes. The TASS 2012 funding is additional
to the £6 million investment.
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