UK Sport to Receive Increased Government Funding for Rio 2016

August 12, 2012

British Prime Minister David Cameron has revealed UK Sport will receive £500m ($783m) over the next four years to maintain funding for Olympic sports and keep them at the same level before the 2016 Games.

UK Sport will receive £500m over the next four years to maintain funding for Olympic sports at same level before the 2016 Games as during the runup to London, David Cameron has announced.

The prime minister also used the closing day of the London Olympics to reveal he has appointed Lord Coe as his Olympic legacy adviser.

Coe, chair of the London 2012 Olympic organising committee who first led the successful bid for the London Games, will spearhead an Olympics Legacy unit in the Cabinet Office to secure the long-term benefits of hosting the Games, focusing particularly on economic and business gains.

The prime minister outlined the moves as part of government plans to build on the legacy of the Olympics for Britain.

Speaking on BBC News on Sunday, Cameron said the decision to provide £125m every year until 2016 aimed “to reward the success of the UK’s outstanding elite sport system” following the British team’s record-breaking medal success at the London Games.

“The motto of these Games has been ‘inspire a generation’. Nothing has been more inspirational than seeing our elite athletes win gold this summer,” he said.

“There’s a direct link between elite success and participation in sport. I want one of the legacies of these Games to be our athletes triumphing in Rio in 2016, and in future Olympic Games. Guaranteeing this funding will help ensure that happens.”

UK Sport, the body that distributes cash to Olympic and Paralympic sports as well as providing a number of specialist services, had previously only been guaranteed funding up until 2014.

The lion’s share of the money will come from the national lottery, with Treasury funding of £40m a year committed for the next two years.

A Downing Street statement said: “As an exception, exchequer funding is now being committed to 2016/17, to give athletes financial certainty in the crucial final two years in the runup to Rio 2016.”