Winning Medals

Winning margins are getting tighter
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Olympic and Paralympic sport has come along way in recent times and is no longer the preserve of ‘plucky’ talented amateurs. Medals are won by as little as thousandths of a second or fractions of a centimetre by athletes who dedicate their lives to the pursuit of success.

It typically takes around eight years to reach their peak once their talent has been identified and nurtured and involves an army of support providers from coaches to physiotherapists and doctors to bio-mechanists. Nothing can be left to chance, from the kit the athletes use to the food they eat and the tactics their coaches employ.

UK Sport’s mission is to support the delivery of medal success at the world’s most significant sporting events – principally the Olympic and Paralympic Games. To achieve this we invest over £100m annually in the most talented athletes across all the summer Olympic and Paralympic sports and the best performing winter sports.

The majority of our work and investment is through the World Class Performance Programme, investing directly in sports and athletes to support their medal winning campaigns. However, equally critical work takes place to ensure that our coaching, scientific and medical support continues to develop at a pace that keeps the UK at the forefront of the world’s best practice.

Add to that teams dedicated to seeking out every legitimate means of performance improvement and helping athletes cope with the demands of a full-time career in sport - and ultimately life beyond sport – and you have a compelling package.

And it doesn’t stop there. UK Sport’s work is designed to support a sustainable world class system and the identification of future talent for our family of sports is a critical building block for future success.

Since the advent of National Lottery funding, UK Sport has been able to support the transformation of our Olympic and Paralympic sports into significant players on the world stage. With a home Games to come in 2012, there is everything to play for.