Wednesday 29 October 2014 23:38, UK
Former Olympic badminton silver medallist Gail Emms has welcomed UK Sport's announcement it will hold a public consultation to decide its future strategy for issuing funding.
The government agency, which invests £100million of National Lottery and other funds into top-level sport each year, has facilitated a surge in British achievements on the global stage with its funding for elite athletes.
You don’t want to worry about whether you can afford petrol to get to training or to pay the coach or equipment.
In February, UK Sport cancelled funding for seven sports, including basketball, weightlifting and badminton because they were deemed to have slim chances of winning medals at Rio 2016 and the Tokyo 2020 Games.
Having won a medal at the 2004 Olympics, Emms knows the difficulties of preparing for an Olympics and she feels it is crucial to make that preparation as easy as possible on athletes by providing adequate funding.
“When you have dreamt about being an Olympic athlete all your life, you would like that process to be as easy as possible,” she said, speaking to Sky Sports News HQ.
“You don’t want to worry about whether you can afford petrol to get to training or to pay the coach or equipment.
“You want that process to be smooth. The only thing you want to worry about is performing for your country and winning those medals.
While Emms welcomes the decision to review the performance-based policy, she understands the dilemma UK Sport faces given that it only has a finite amount of funding to distribute.
There was a massive backlash when the public heard that sports such as basketball... had gone from having funding for London 2012 to having absolutely nothing.
“There was a massive backlash when the public heard that sports such as basketball, a big sport that is played by lots of teenagers, has gone from having funding for London 2012 to having absolutely nothing,” she said.
“It has always been that UK Sport has funded the elite of the elite. It has never been in their remit to fund grassroots levels in that sport so it always has been about the ones that are going to get medals.
“If Team GB doesn’t get a lot of medals, there is always an interest in why, so it a tough situation UK Sport are in because they do want to fund all the sports.
“They want there to be an opportunity for any athlete from any sport to be able to go and compete at an Olympic or Paralympic Games.
“But at the end of the day, do we throw money away on a sport that won’t achieve a medal?”
One of the primary criticisms of the policy is the reduction of funding of funding for sports with large grassroots participation numbers such as basketball and badminton.
Emms feels participation levels should be taken into account when funding levels are decided upon but understands the different dynamics of each individual sport make it difficult to come up with an all-encompassing, fair policy for all.
“It will be interesting if they do go down that line because you have got sports such as badminton that have a great grassroots set up,” she said.
We are one of the highest participated sports in this country but badminton’s problem is getting that shift from a hobby into elite level sport.
“We are one of the highest participated sports in this country but badminton’s problem is getting that shift from a hobby sport into elite level sport.
“That is where we need to target our funding but every sport is incredibly different.”
