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leaders and practitioners who know
how and continue to do the basics
exceptionally well, while also embracing
impactful innovations in sports science,
medicine and technology, and make the
money work hard to deliver success.
We had absolute clarity and belief in our
mission, to top the London 2012 medal
haul, which helped the whole system align
and unite behind a shared goal. It helped
UK Sport focus and make tough decisions
where we had to.
This also fostered great collaboration and
partnership with the British Olympic and
Paralympic Associations, who created
world class Games time environments,
allowing our athletes to excel like never
before. There was no doubt our athletes
were the best prepared of any competing
in Rio this summer.
All in all partnerships are key to any
success and no more so than what has
been achieved in Rio. We are proud of
how we have worked in partnership with
the sports, the British Olympic Association
and the British Paralympic Association,
the Home Country Sport Councils and
Institutes and our commercial partners
such as Sportscover who bring expertise
and added value to our system.
TH:
National Lottery Funding is absolutely
crucial
in
supporting
our
high
performance system and developing our
most talented athletes to be the best
in the world, ensuring that we send the
most competitive team of athletes to the
Games. UK Sport and our NGBs also have
a huge level of experience and staff that
have an unbeatable understanding of
Paralympic sport and what our athletes
need in order to succeed. It is genuinely
strategic.
This, combined with the BPA’s ambition
to be ‘best prepared’, either through our
preparation camp in Belo Horizonte or
the extensive support that we put in place
for the athletes on the team, meant we
could go the extra mile to ensure that our
preparations were second to none. We
collectively spent four years preparing for
14 days. It was worth it.
ME:
First and foremost, this is down to the
dedication, hard work and extraordinary
talent that our Olympic athletes have
shown in the run up to Rio 2016 and at
the Games themselves.
At the British Olympic Association we
leave no stone unturned in our mission to
create a world-class environment for our
athletes to perform at their best at the
Olympic Games. This includes everything
from the creation of an unrivalled
pre-Games preparation camp in Belo
Horizonte, recruiting the finest support
personnel and even the small home-from-
home touches in the Olympic Village that
help athletes adapt at the Games.
You can also trace the success back 20
years to the creation of the UK Sport
and the distribution of National Lottery
funding to help Olympic and Paralympic
sport. Since then we have seen our
athletes increase Team GB’s medal haul at
every Olympic Games since Atlanta 1996,
a feat unrivalled by our peers.
TY:
I think the amazing success can be
attributed to the whole team and the
accountability that exists and ensures
performance environments are created
in which multiple people with different
but relevant skill sets and experiences,
including coaches and support staff,
continually think about performance and
ways to improve it. There appears to be
little, if any room for complacency and an
enormous appetite for challenging the
status quo to achieve positive results.
Can you hope and plan to maintain or
exceed this level of performance? Is
this entirely dependent on the levels of
funding?
Chelsea Warr:
At UK Sport we are constantly evolving
our approach to keep us ahead of the
rest of the world and do believe there is
still room for improvement in our high
performance system so Rio doesn’t have
to be the pinnacle for British Olympic
and Paralympic sport.
One thing that remains
fairly constant though
is that we know what it takes to
win and this sustained strategic
investment of National Lottery
and Exchequer income is absolutely
crucial to maintaining the inspirational
success of British athletes. The
Government’s commitment to a 29
per cent increase in Exchequer funding
for the Tokyo cycle was recognition of
the success of our system but we are
still subject to fluctuations in National
Lottery income so it is vital people
continue to play the National Lottery
to maintain the current levels of
success. The high performance
environment is becoming ever more
competitive and we must not lose a
moment in our race to stay ahead that
is why sports had already prepared
their business cases for Tokyo, 6
months before Rio 2016, so that we can
all hit the ground running.
TH:
It will undoubtedly be tough to maintain
or exceed the performance from this
Games – although we said that about
the last! Funding is key and crucial to
the success of the high performance
system that underpins the journey
to the Paralympic Games. But
it is not the only variable. We
can always get smarter and
better at what we do. We
will review our operations
in Rio to learn from them
and improve on them for
Tokyo. Rio 2016 will have
provided some of our
athletes with greater
motivation for the
Tokyo cycle, and
inspired others to
get involved. The
d e v e l o pme n t
of new talent
will be
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