Paris 2024: Funding decisions for British sport signal a shift towards greater diversity and winning the “right path”.

The British sporting decisions to finance Paris 2024 signal a step towards greater diversity and “the right way,” says chairwoman Dame Katherine Grainger.

New additions such as surfing and skateboarding have been funded, while some traditional sports have had their budgets cut.

“It’s a really important and exciting moment,” Grainger told BBC Sport.

“There are two important things – greater diversity and wider engagement. Winning is still important, but how we win is equally important for everyone in the system.

“Everyone is on board to make sure we’re winning the right way and that it’s not just a nice slogan.

“This is not just a phase, but an evolution of the system and the how [we win] to be so powerful and popular now. “

Those without the right culture “not welcome”

UK Sport’s “no compromise” approach, announced in 2004, of strictly linking funding to medal potential, has been blamed for a number of recent welfare and bullying scandals.

A. Strategy change was announced in October, Focusing future funding of Olympic and Paralympic sports on medal potential over a period of 12 instead of four years with a “progressive approach” aimed at achieving success across a wider range of sports.

“What we’ve done is take a holistic view of the sport in terms of the athlete cohort and its future potential,” Managing Director Sally Munday told BBC Sport.

“We looked at how they run their programs, what the cost of running their programs, and we looked at how they will make sure that culture is at the center of their activities.

“We are very happy with the sports we invest in as they promote the right culture.

“We’ll be working with sport to make it clear that if you don’t put good positive culture at the center of everything you do, you’re simply not welcome.”

Former rower Grainger – Britain’s most distinguished Olympic gold medalist – has been the head of the national funding organization for the past three years, adding: “We have a duty to do well with the public pound and to say it needs to reach as many as possible. ” possible and in the right way.

“It must have this heart of solid integrity and trust in the system.

“I want our sports community to be known internationally for its people-first approach and for adhering to the highest standards of integrity.”

The winners and losers

While the funding adds to the £ 345million set aside for the Tokyo Games, expanding from 32 to 43 sports, some of the UK’s most successful sports have lost.

For athletics, gymnastics, rowing and swimming, budgets have been cut by around 10%, while cuts have also been made for sailing, canoeing, horse riding and modern pentathlons.

Badminton saw a significant increase and funding for the UK wheelchair rugby was restored. The sport received a total of £ 3million in the run-up to Rio 2016 but all funds were removed after failing to win a medal in the Games.

You have since won two European titles and climbed to fourth place in the world.

Great Britain won 67 medals in Rio 2016 and won 64 gold medals in the Paralympics.

British Rowing CEO Andy Parkinson said he was not surprised to see the sport cut by around £ 2.4m in “tough economic times”.

However, his Pentathlon UK counterpart Sara Heath said she was “disappointed and at a loss” about a reduction of just over 20%.

In a statement, Pentathlon UK stated it was intending to appeal, with Heath stressing a “lack of parity … between the sports that receive this crucial funding”.

Commenting on the decision to cut funding for a number of sports, Munday added, “These are pretty tough times in terms of the financial framework we have and we went to see the play.

“We wanted more sports than ever before, so we had to make some pretty tough decisions.

“I believe that the sports that have been consistently successful will continue to do well with the funding they have received.”

An additional new fund worth £ 3 million is also open to applications from other sports such as breaking will perform for the first time at the Olympic Games in Paris.

UK Sport is expected to assess the potential of breaking over the next 12 months as climbing, skateboarding, surfing and karate have been added to the Olympic program for the first time.

analysis

BBC Sports Editor Dan Roan

Despite two decades of unprecedented Olympic and Paralympic success, it appears to be a significant departure from British sport.

As control over how public money is invested by the funding agency seems to have gone down, the penny that medals aren’t all that matters.

Critics have long said that UK Sport has focused too much on what is known as “noble sport”, which is practiced mainly in private schools, at the expense of growing activities that can inspire more diverse and urban communities. So this is an attempt to rebalance a bit, even if medals are risked in the short term.

After UK Sport was partially blamed for a number of bullying scandals, UK Sport has also recognized that winning cannot come at the expense of the wellbeing or integrity of athletes. It’s too early to judge whether it’s ready to back up such rhetoric with further funding cuts, but the sport has been warned.

Who has what

The mean for rowing fell by almost 10%, while for swimming (11.4%) and horse riding (11.6%) there were also significant decreases.

However, funding more than doubled for archery, with badminton up around £ 2.5 million (up 300%) and cycling up 12%.