What we do
Jessica Ennis
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Essentially, UK Sport’s responsibilities are to underpin and unlock the nation’s Olympic and Paralympic performance potential by:
- Investing a significant majority of its income into the World Class Performance Programme, and working closely with the national governing bodies of sport to ensure they operate as effectively as possible
- Working with partners to develop the people and systems that support our leading athletes, principally in the areas of coaching, talent identification and sports science and medicine practitioners and Performance Lifestyle, to ensure a continuing legacy for our investment
- Seeking cutting edge research and innovative solutions to performance challenges
UK Sport also leads the campaign to bring strategically important major sporting events to the UK. Working with national governing bodies, cities and regions and home country agencies, we invest around £4m every year to attract and stage significant events primarily of World and European status. Not only does this programme deliver economic and social benefits to the towns and cities where events are staged, but most importantly it also supports the UK’s performance ambitions and helped to build up a network of suitably experienced and qualified volunteers and officials ahead of London 2012.
Elsewhere, UK Sport works with governing bodies and other partner organisations to help them build positive working relationships with International Federations and sporting bodies. This enables us to influence events and decisions on the world stage, by assisting with the appointment of individuals into key international roles. UK Sport is also the lead agency on the delivery of International Inspiration, making good Lord Coe’s promise on behalf of the London bid to ‘reach young people all around the world and connect them to the inspirational power of the Games so they are inspired to choose sport’.
