UK Sport launches public consultation to determine whether Britain should overhaul the way it funds elite sport.
UK Sport Chair Dame Katherine Grainger said: “The success of the UK’s high performance sport system since the advent of National Lottery funding in the 1990s has been nothing short of remarkable.”
“The challenge now is how we build on that success, aiming for even more inspirational impact on the UK as a whole.”
The review comes following rumours of a reduction in funding for elite sport as the National Lottery, which supplies two-thirds of the funding, suffers a drop in the number of people playing the lottery,
Sailing receives £25,757,417 for the Tokyo Olympic Funding round from UK Sport, the fourth highest funded sport behind Rowing (£30,524,595), Cycling and Athletics.
During the three-month consultation, the high performance funding agency is asking for views on how it best allocates its National Lottery and taxpayer funding post the Tokyo Games with the new funding strategy due to come into effect from April 2021.
Members of the public, along with stakeholders in national governing bodies, grassroots sport and athletes, politicians and the media will be invited to take part ahead of decisions to be made later this year.
Questions to be considered include how sports and athletes are prioritised for future investment, whether that is athletes with the strongest medal potential regardless of whether they are Olympic or Paralympic, summer or winter.
Lesser-funded minority or developing sports that currently receive no funding have criticised the focus on medal potential as the driver, and last year 11 sports called for the policy to be scrapped.
Participants will be asked to make the tough choices and consider the ultimate consequences of these choices with what in reality will always be a limited pot of public funding for high performance sport in the UK.