Predecessor | Sports Council of Great Britain |
---|---|
Formation | 6 January 1997 |
Purpose | Investing into Olympic and Paralympic sport in the UK |
Headquarters | London, WC1 |
Chair | Dame Katherine Grainger |
CEO | Sally Munday |
Parent organization | Department for Culture, Media and Sport |
Affiliations | British Olympic Association British Paralympic Association English Institute of Sport UK Anti-Doping The National Lottery |
Staff | 90 |
Website | uksport.gov.uk |
UK Sport is the government agency responsible for investing money sourced from the National Lottery and the government, into Olympic and Paralympic sport in the United Kingdom. [1] [2] It is an executive non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. [2]
It was created in 1997, following a "rock bottom" showing at the 1996 Summer Olympics where Team GB won just one solitary gold medal. [3] Team GB and Paralympics GB went on to place third in the medal table at London 2012 [4] and second in the table at Rio 2016. [5]
UK Sport currently invests around £345m in summer Olympic and Paralympic sports [6] and £24m in winter Olympic and Paralympic sports. [7] These investments are spread over a four-year cycle ahead of the Tokyo and Beijing Olympic and Paralympic Games respectively.
The investments are made through Athlete Performance Awards which are paid directly to the athlete and contribute to their living and sporting costs [8] and through central funding to sport National Governing Bodies to invest in coaches, facilities and sports science and medicine. [8]
The Royal Yachting Association (RYA) is a United Kingdom national governing body for sailing, dinghy sailing, yacht and motor cruising, sail racing, RIBs and sportsboats, windsurfing and personal watercraft and a leading representative for inland waterways cruising.
British Fencing (BF), formerly the British Fencing Association is the national governing body (NGB) for the Olympic sport of fencing in the United Kingdom.
The United Kingdom has been represented at every modern Olympic Games. By end of the 2024 Summer Olympics, it is third in the all-time Summer Olympic medal table by overall number of medals, and fourth in number of gold medals won. London hosted the Summer Olympic Games in 1908, 1948 and 2012.
Great Britain competed at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China. The United Kingdom was represented by the British Olympic Association (BOA), and the team of selected athletes was officially known as Team GB. Britain is one of only five NOCs to have competed in every modern Summer Olympic Games since 1896. The delegation of 547 people included 311 competitors – 168 men, 143 women – and 236 officials. The team was made up of athletes from the whole United Kingdom including Northern Ireland. Additionally some British overseas territories compete separately from Britain in Olympic competition.
Great Britain competed at the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing, People's Republic of China. Great Britain sent a delegation of around 400, of which 212 were athletes, to compete in eighteen sports at the Games. The team was made up of athletes from the whole United Kingdom; athletes from Northern Ireland, who may elect to hold Irish citizenship under the pre-1999 article 2 of the Irish constitution, are able to be selected to represent either Great Britain or Ireland at the Paralympics. Additionally some British overseas territories compete separately from Britain in Paralympic competition.
Daniel Greaves is a British athlete who specialises in the discus throw.
Eleanor May Simmonds, OBE is a British former Paralympian swimmer who competed in S6 events. She came to national attention when she competed in the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing, winning two gold medals for Great Britain. She was the youngest member of the team, at the age of 13.
Sophie Margaret Christiansen, CBE is an English equestrian who has competed in four successive Paralympic Games. In 2012 and 2016 she gained three gold medals at the Paralympics. In 2008 she won two gold medals and a silver at the Beijing Paralympics whilst studying for a master's degree in mathematics at Royal Holloway, University of London. She works as a software developer at investment bank, Goldman Sachs and as a disability campaigner. She qualified for the postponed 2020 Summer Paralympics but had to drop out due to her horse not being fit.
Luke Patience is a British Olympic sailor. He competed with Stuart Bithell at the 2012 Summer Olympics, and the team won a silver medal.
Hannah Lucy Cockroft is a British wheelchair racer specialising in sprint distances in the T34 classification and TV presenter.
David John Smith is a Paralympian who made his Paralympic debut on the British boccia team that won the gold medal at the 2008 Summer Paralympics. He competed for Great Britain at the 2012 Summer Paralympics and did so winning Bronze in the Team BC1–2. and Silver in the BC1 individual event watched by a record Boccia crowd at the Excel arena. David competed for Paralympics GB for a third time in Rio where he won Gold in the individual BC1 event for the first time in his career. David held the 'triple crown' of major tournament wins following his win at the World Championships in Liverpool 2018 until the World Championships in Rio 2022 where he claimed Silver. Smith is now the holder of three Paralympic Gold Medals, after winning at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics, making him the most decorated British Boccia player in history and the first BC1 to defend a Paralympic title, He was selected to carry the GB flag in the Tokyo 2020 closing ceremony.
Crystal Lane-Wright is a British Paralympic track and road cyclist competing in C5 events. A bronze medallist in the Road World Championships in 2011, she competed for Great Britain team at the 2012 Summer Paralympics and 2016 Summer Paralympics. At the 2016 Games in Rio she took silver medal in the individual pursuit and bronze in the road race. In 2018, she won the individual pursuit at the Rio de Janeiro Track World Championships. The same year she also took silver in individual time trial and bronze in the road race in the Road World Championships held in Maniago.
Elizabeth Johnson is a British swimmer who has won gold medals in the Paralympic Games and International Paralympic Committee (IPC) world championships. She has cerebral palsy, placing her in the S6 classification.
Neil Michael Fachie is a Scottish cyclist and former track athlete, competing in events for people with a visual impairment. Fachie has competed in two Paralympics, as a sprinter in the 2008 Games in Beijing and as a tandem cyclist in London 2012. In London he won the gold medal in the Men's individual 1 km time trial and silver in the individual sprint, both with Barney Storey as his sighted pilot. Outside of the Paralympic Games, Fachie is a nineteen-time world champion and 5 times Commonwealth Games champion, creating tandem partnerships with Barney Storey, Pete Mitchell, and Olympians Craig MacLean and Matt Rotherham.
Charlotte Sarah Henshaw is a British Paralympic full-time athlete across multiple disciplines. Originally a swimmer, she changed to canoeing from 2017, becoming the reigning World champion in the KL2 (five-time) and VL3 (three-time) 200m events. In September 2021, at the delayed 2020 Summer Paralympics in Tokyo, she became a Paralympic champion at her fourth games, winning the Women's KL2 event.
Japan women's national goalball team is the women's national team of Japan. Goalball is a team sport designed specifically for athletes with a vision impairment. Its women's team has internationally completed including at the IBSA World Goalball Championships and the Paralympic Games.
Great Britain and Northern Ireland competed, under the name Great Britain, at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 7 September to 18 September 2016. The first places for which the team qualified were for six athletes in sailing events.
Kadeena Cox is a parasport athlete competing in T38 para-athletics sprint events and C4 para-cycling and British television presenter. She was part of the 2015 IPC Athletics World Championships and the 2016 UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships, in which she won world titles in the T37 100m and C4 500m time trial respectively.
Great Britain, or in full Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the team of the British Olympic Association (BOA), which represents the United Kingdom, competed at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Originally scheduled to take place from 24 July to 9 August 2020, the Games were postponed to 23 July to 8 August 2021, because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Great Britain competed at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China, from 4 to 20 February 2022. The Great Britain team consists of 50 athletes. Eve Muirhead and Dave Ryding were the country's flagbearers during the opening ceremony. Meanwhile curler Bruce Mouat was the flagbearer during the closing ceremony.