Quote Originally Posted by sore legs View Post
I found this very strange - the olympics are in London and our athletes could not even be bothered to show up at the opening of it - more of a disgrace in my view.

I suppose if the athletes cant hit their peak with a 4 year build up with a full supporting and managing team behind them then they dont deserve any future support. Everyone has off days or lets the occasion get to them but I view these latest performances as woeful.

How many and who are funded?? Listening to one of the boxing coaches, he stated that there was no need for the the boxers to rush off after success and become professional as they were currently earning nearly as much as an amateur - I dont know how that is supposed to work as that is not an amateur in my books or by definition.
Roughly Sport Funding from central coffers comes from 2 sources.

UK Sport for Elite Sport which funds the potential Olympians. UKA receive a settlement every 4 year cycle and the new settlement will be announced on the 12/12/12 and will commence in April 2013.
Each sport is assessed on it's performance in the previous period and so cycling might receive more and swimming is worried incase they lose funding.
Previously Gymnastics and Judo have lost funding but battled back this time around.

Sports have to demonstrate that they have a good chance of getting to Rio - eg Handball UK only got in as we were at home. They would have to improve a lot to have a chance of qualifying for Rio so may lose their UK Sport money in the review.

Sport England is for Grass Roots sport whether club based or non-club initiatives.
So handball could still receive assistance from this source.

The funding comes mostly from lottery but also from central government and then the individual sports go out and try and attract commercial sponsors, such as UKA have done with Aviva and McCain.

It's not quite a simple as having a four year build up. Sometimes shit happens, illness, injury etc.

But questions will be asked in all sports - even the most successful ones. I am sure that UKA could have done some things better. Of course I'm not ideally placed to comment, but it's fair enough that we can have a debate.