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crucial in supporting our performance
in 2020. Equally we know that 55% of
medallists in Rio were at their first Games
and 30% were under 23 years old so much
of the team that succeeded in Rio will still
be in place.
ME:
It’s very early to be discussing levels of
performance in Tokyo already but what
we can confirm is that the British Olympic
Association is already well underway
with our plans to create a world-class
environment for our ‘class of 2020’.
We have already visited Tokyo on a
number of occasions, with the most recent
visit just last month, and are establishing
early plans for our pre-Games training
camp in Japan. We work very closely with
each of the sporting National Governing
Bodies throughout the four-year cycle to
ensure all their needs are met within the
environment, and all the athletes can go
into the Games able to compete at their
very best.
TY:
We do plan to exceed levels of
performance in Rio and every confidence
we can take the sport and its lifters to
real success on the Olympic platform.
Although funding helps, our future results
are not entirely dependent on the levels
of that support - a significant factor is
based on achieving greater alignment
and clarity over what is possible and the
processes and commitment required to
make progress towards your objectives.
Have you yet decided on the targets for
Pyeongchang & Tokyo?
LN:
When we made our investment decisions
for Pyeongchang we were clear that we
expected to beat our Sochi medal haul
and the sports are telling us they are
confident they can achieve this. Following
the breakthrough games in Sochi where
we equalled a best ever Olympic medal
haul including the first medal on snow and
followed that with our best performance
at the Paralympics for 30 years, UK Sport
made the decision to double investment
in winter sports for Pyeongchang and
beyond to ensure we build on that success.
In terms of Tokyo we will announce our
investment decisions in December based
on what the sports are telling us is possible
in 2020. In high performance sport it’s all
about setting truly challenging goals to
galvanise and inspire the system after the
historic performances in Rio. What excites
us most is we know there are still areas
we can improve upon as we build towards
Tokyo 2020.
TH:
No! It is much too early for such detail and
indeed we don’t yet know the landscape
in which we will be operating. As before,
UK Sport will set the formal medal target
for the team, based on their funding
levels and investment strategy, and the
BPA will equally state on the back of that
our ambition for each Games. The key
thing we can say now is we will be aiming
to be up there with the World’s best as
standards in Paralympic sport continue
to rise in both Winter and Summer sports.
We are very proud of our position as a
world leading Paralympic nation and have
no intention to give it up.
TY:
Yes. We are determined to improve on Rio,
where 17 year old Rebekah Tiler was 10th
in the Women’s 69kg class and Ali Jawad
won a silver and Zoe Newson a bronze
in the Para-lifting. Ideally in Tokyo we
will be looking to medal in Weight Lifting,
although our agreed target is a top 6 to 1
medal and then achieve a further 1 to 2
medals in Powerlifting.
We have seen a tremendous rise in
popularity of the Paralympics. Do you
think that this will continue?
TH:
After London 2012 I said that we were still
in the foothills of this journey rather than
the summit and whilst London surpassed
expectations, the progression from there
to Sochi 2014 and Rio 2016 showed
that it was not London 2012 that made
the Paralympics special, but rather vice
versa. There is something unique about
Paralympic sport that has the potential
to capture the public’s imagination and
attention and this was evident in Rio,
where the local ‘carioca’ turned out in
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