Lottery created foundations for British success -How Lottery funding makes a difference to team GB

(Reuters) - John Major was a face in the crowd at the Olympic velodrome as Chris Hoy seized a sixth career gold but the sport-loving former prime minister also played a part in Britain's biggest medal haul in more than a century.

It was under his administration, as British Olympic Association chairman and former Sports Minister Colin Moynihan reminded reporters on Wednesday, that the National Lottery came into being in late 1994.

While the privately-operated and state-franchised lottery has its critics, many of them opposed to gambling, the distribution fund administered by the government has given significant sums to sport with Olympic performance in mind.

In Atlanta in 1996, Britain won just one gold medal. In Beijing four years ago they won 19. So far in London, the tally stands at 22 golds and 48 medals - the best performance since the first London Games in 1908.

"You cannot unravel in terms of performance all the different elements that when brought together create a medal performance," said Moynihan, with the country basking in a golden glow.

"But what you can say about the funding that John Major and the lottery has delivered is that it has provided a platform for athletes with outstanding talent to deliver personal bests.

"It has enabled athletes to be surrounded by quality coaching and all the support staff that are necessary to assist that athlete, and in some sports the technology, to go through," said Moynihan.

'HOY WONDER'

Hoy's performance in the Keirin on Tuesday made him Britain's most decorated Olympian and the object of national adulation.

"The Hoy Wonder," declared Britain's best-selling Sun newspaper, with a front page headline of "United Blingdom" over 22 gold medals.

"Pride and Hoy" and "Tears of Hoy" were also popular.

Behind the Scot, however, is a story of dedicated organization and ruthless programming.

"Pick your winners and back them massively," was the advice on Wednesday from Team GB Chef de Mission Andy Hunt to next Games host Brazil, and Britain has done just that since the dark days of Atlanta.

There has been a 'no compromise' approach to the high-performance programme which investment based on past results and future potential. That effectively means that the better a sport does, the more money it gets.

That can be hard on some sports, but others such as cycling and rowing have become medal factories.

Cycling, road and track, has provided 12 of Britain's medals including eight of the golds - more titles than Brazil has medals so far. In Beijing, cycling also brought back eight golds and 14 medals.

Rowing has provided nine medals for Team GB, four of them gold, in their best Olympic performance. It is the only sport that Britain has won at least one gold medal in at every Games since 1984.

In 1996 there was a crisis in British Cycling, with the men winning just two bronze medals and the women nothing, and the board was replaced. They have not looked back.

The hiring of Dave Brailsford, once lottery funding started, was inspired and as performance director he oversaw success in Athens and Beijing before also overseeing Bradley Wiggins' Tour de France triumph this year as principal of Team Sky.

"Clearly the funding programme which has been able to be channeled to them over the years based on their success, has been enormously important," said Moynihan.

UK Sport, established in 1997, annually invests around 100 million pounds ($156.50 million) of public funds - from the lottery and government - in high performance sport while other money comes in from a Team 2012 initiative.

Coaches have been brought in from abroad, notably Australia, in a range of sports and athletes have the resources to train abroad at altitude and in warmer climates.

The arrival in 2006 of rugby World Cup winning manager Clive Woodward as the BOA's director of elite performance has been another key appointment.

Woodward has been meticulous in his approach to the job, introducing a new focus on core values and a strict dress code to reinforce the image of 'One Team GB'.

"Here at the BOA he has been critical in delivering the performance support to the athletes during Games time," said Moynihan.

"He has had to embed himself into programmes and working relationships with the governing bodies on the road to London 2012 but it's paid off...he and Dave Redding and his team are I think the finest high performance team in Olympic sport."

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/08/us-oly-gbr-success-day-idUSBRE8770RE20120808

Britain's biggest gold medals haul since 1908 owes a lot to improved funding for Olympic sports. A former heptathlete tells Channel 4 News the difference lottery funding has made to athletics.

Back in 1996 Britain won a solitary gold in the Atlanta Olympics, courtesy of the ever-reliable Steve Redgrave and his rowing partner Matthew Pinsent.

Two years earlier, however, the launch of the National Lottery had given John Major's Conservative government the chance to invest in Olympic sports.

Sixteen years on from Atlanta, and the lottery has helped to deliver an Olympic Games and fund one of Britain's most successful ever medal-winning performances.

More than £264m has been shared between 27 Olympic sports from 2009 to 2013 to help British athletes perform to their potential at London 2012.

Rowing and cycling, two of Britain's most successful Olympics sports of recent Games, are among the best-funded, with athletics a close third. Sailing and canoeing have also been well supported.

At the other end of the funding league are shooting, wrestling and weightlifting, with only tennis and football not receiving any funding whatsoever.

The current backing enjoyed by Jessica Ennis and other track and field competitors is leagues ahead of the support that athletes received prior to the Atlanta Games.

No social life

Clova Court is one of Ennis's predecessors as Britain's number one heptathlete. Without receiving lottery funding she qualified for the European Championships, World Championships and Commonwealth Games in the early 1990s, competing against champions like the USA's Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Germany's Sabine Braun and her better known compatriot Denise Lewis.

To support herself she worked from 6.30am as a manager in a petrol station in her native West Midlands, squeezing in up to five hours of training into her lunch break and after work.

Court said that heptathlon is a particularly tough sport to fund and admits to having no social life during this time. "There are so many different pairs of shoes and pieces of equipment for heptathlon," she explains. "It's really gruelling, yet it is difficult to to get anyone to consider funding."

As well as being fortunate to have a husband as a coach and an understanding boss who accommodated her training schedule, Court was sponsored by the petrol station where she worked.

Funding guarantee

In 2012 funding for Olympic sports is split almost 50/50 between the exchequer and the lottery. This funding is guaranteed for the lifetime of the current parliament but from 2015 the government's share will reduce.

A bigger share of lottery money beyond 2015 will provide some of the shortfall, with UK Sportgetting as much as two thirds of funding from the lottery.

As well as funding prospects for the Rio Olympics in 2016, UK Sport will fund the development of talent for future games, a UK Sport spokesperson said.

"These are people on the talent path for Rio," he added. "There are people we find now who will win medals in Rio who you will have never heard of."

Outstanding talent

UK Sport has published targets that it would like each sporting body to achieve at London 2012, ranging from a clutch of medals for cycling to winning a set number of games for less developed sports like handball.

But success at London 2012 will not be the only factor in deciding future funding.

"We also look at what athletes each sport has in the pipeline," the spokesperson said. "If you can identify outstanding talent you will be funded."

"From our point of view, Lottery funding has had a massive impact," he added. "Just look at all the medals. This is the best-funded Olympic team ever because it a London Games."

No regrets

Clova Court retired in 2001. Towards the end of her career she had some support from sporting bodies and attracted shoe sponsorship from Puma.

But having experienced life before and after Lottery money, she said that supporting development of athletes and helping athletes while they are injured is the best use for Lottery funding.

As for her own career, she has no regrets, despite the dearth of funding.

"I came in very late to the sport and gave it the best that I could and I mixed it with the athletes competing at the time.

"Maybe if I had been able to go full time I could have achieved more. But I am very proud of my career as an athlete."

http://www.channel4.com/news/how-lottery-funding-makes-a-difference-to-team-gb