[Sport] UK Sport invests record £330m for 2028 LA Games

[XZoro]

 

 

Elite sport funding body UK Sport says it will invest a record £330m in Britain's Olympic and Paralympic sports for the 2028 Games in Los Angeles.

More than 50 sports will benefit, though athletics has had its budget reduced for the second cycle running.

Five new sports for the 2028 Games - baseball/softball, flag football, lacrosse, Para-climbing and squash - have all received funding.

Breaking, which featured for the first time at the Paris Games this summer, is no longer eligible for support after it was axed from the Olympic programme.

The total figure will top £400m with the addition of athlete performance awards (APAs), which are paid directly to individual athletes and contribute to their living and sporting costs so they can focus on competing - about £70m was awarded in APAs in the Paris funding cycle, which totalled £385m.

Sally Munday, chief executive officer of UK Sport, told BBC Sport funding should not be looked at as either a "reward" or a "punishment" for performances at the Paris Games.

"The decision that we've made against all the sports is we've looked at their potential," said Munday.

"UK Athletics will receive in excess of £30m for the Olympic and Paralympic programmes and we believe that's going to put them in a great place to support their athletes in the lead into LA."

Jack Buckner, CEO of UK Athletics, said the organisation was "disappointed" with the decision to reduce the sport's share by £1.725m, and highlighted the 10 medals at both the World Championships in 2023 and this year's Olympics "deserved a higher level of investment".

Canoeing was another sport to have its funding cut, by more than £500,000. When the total funding for the Paris 2024 cycle is taken into account, modern pentathlon and equestrian have received a smaller budget, but rowing has increased to £24.85m from £22.72m, despite a cut between Tokyo and Paris.

Meanwhile, British Basketball Federation chair Chris Grant said the sport "has entered a new era" with an award of £2.925m, primarily to help develop the 3x3 format of the game.

Great Britain won 65 medals at this year's Games and 124 medals at the Paralympics.

They finished seventh in the Olympic medal table, behind the Netherlands in sixth and fifth-placed France, but Munday said the aim is to be "consistently top five".

"We'll be really forensic - were there contributing factors that we could do differently to make sure that we don't find ourselves in that position again?" said Munday.

"We will be leaving no stone unturned to make sure that we've really understood what the factors are as to why we came seventh. But we're very clear we want to be consistently top five."

 

https://www.bbc.com/sport/olympics/articles/cjr2lgj0x31o