JOh, are you happy with the prize or frustrated with the “what ifs”? It’s a conundrum faced by the silver medalists and something some may still be grappling with after their efforts at the Paris Games, with Josh Cole and Matt Hudson-Smith having it written all over their faces in the immediate aftermath. After a near-miss, will Gold’s motivation turn into obsession?
“Each athlete’s situation is different,” said Dame Katherine Grainger, a five-time Olympic rowing medalist and current chairperson of UK Sport. “I won a silver medal, which was the greatest thing ever, my first medal,” she said, recalling her success in the women’s quadruple sculls at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
“We’ve never won any medals in women’s rowing with Team GB. It’s incredible. Eight years later, I get a silver medal, which is heartbreaking because it’s not something we thought we could achieve. Expectations change .It takes a lot of patience and support for athletes to come back, no matter the outcome, they are now Olympians and that is a celebration in itself.
But the gold Granger ultimately won at London 2012 did matter. Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today program last week, Granger, while pleased with the overall performance of 65 medals, admitted “there’s still some work to be done” in terms of gold medals for Team GB. The number was 14, the lowest level in 20 years. Questions have been raised around Sport England’s funding of sports projects, which deliver limited return on investment. Take boxing, for example, which had a purse of just over £12 million and a bronze medal during the Paris cycle.
Granger stressed that a lack of medals did not equate to a reduction in sports funding. “If you think: ‘This has been a disappointing Olympics and now we need to change our investment’, then every sport is afraid of a series of bad results. That puts too much pressure on individual athletes, They think, “If we don’t perform well, our sport might be over. “
“We can’t react immediately and there won’t be consequences, so the next decision is made immediately. It’s a much healthier conversation than that.
The financial situation in UK sport has been tricky of late. In April, The Times reported on a statement from the organization’s chief executive, Sally Munday, to the national governing body announcing plans to cut a quarter of its staff. “Unless we all play our part and demonstrate substantial savings and efficiencies, we do not believe we can make a credible case to the government for increased investment on your behalf,” Mundy wrote.
Granger said the cuts have already been made. “Los Angeles is next year for the Summer Olympics. It’s obviously a lot different for travel, for everything else it’s going to be more expensive. Last year people experienced an increase in the cost of living and everything was increasing. Realistically, we don’t know if our own budget will be able to increase, or certainly won’t be able to match the increase in costs.
“It is sport that is doing this extraordinary work and athletes are doing incredible things. Our priority is to ensure where possible that funding goes directly to them. The right thing to do is to bring UK Sport as an organization to Look at, see where we can reduce costs while still implementing strategies and still giving sports the support they need.
“It’s still important that we can achieve our ambitions and we still think we can. We’re just going to do it in a reduced way and that’s why we’ve reorganized and had to reduce our staff, which is a big plus for anyone. It’s not an easy thing to go through, but it’s the right thing to do.
The new four-year cycle also prompts a search for the next big thing. Granger’s speech is part of UK Sport’s latest talent identification programme, Find Your Greatness. The aim is simple: attract 16 to 24-year-olds with natural athletic ability and find the right sport to fulfill their potential, filling gaps in the GB National Team and GB Paralympics. Applications are now open, with regional testing to follow, with the funding agency hoping to find athletes to compete in disciplines including steel frame, cycling, modern pentathlon and handball.
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“When the Olympics and Paralympics capture the public’s imagination,” Granger said, “it’s a great time for people to sit at home and think: ‘How do you get into this sport?'” Try and tap into this huge potential. What an exciting thing.
Similar UK sports programs have been effective in the past. Lizzy Yarnold was a heptathlete before applying to the Girls4Gold program in 2008. Around the same time, Helen Glover joined the Sports Giants program, a program designed to find taller athletes. In Paris, she added a silver medal to the rowing gold medals she won in London and Rio.
“[The programmes] It changes every year, from one Olympiad to the next, but they do work,” Granger said. “We just saw four outstanding Olympians, both men and women, on those incredible bouldering walls in Paris, but they were all leading and bouldering. None of us were doing speed climbing. So where can we go? What about finding athletes with a talent for speed climbing?
Granger said the whole thing just requires a little imagination. “If you have a natural trait, you can be introduced and helped along the way.” Some can even satisfy a thirst for gold.
