About Us

UK Sport provides strategic investment to enable Great Britain’s Olympic and Paralympic sports and athletes to achieve their full medal winning potential.

Since UK Sport was founded by Royal Charter in 1997 we have taken GB from 36th in the Olympic medal table at Atlanta to third in the Olympic and Paralympic medal table at London 2012.

We have a very clear remit at the ‘top end’ of Britain’s sporting pathway supporting athletes and sports to compete and win medals at the Olympic and Paralympic Games. UK Sport has no direct involvement in community or school sport.

Our investment and support services cover:

• Performance (Investment, Evaluation, Solutions)
• Events (Investment, Bidding, Support)
• International (Influence, Development)
• Governance, Leadership, Financial Accounting
• Science, Medicine and Technology (via the Home Nation Institutes)

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More than 70 per cent of our investment funds the World Class Programme – and we work in partnership with the National Governing Bodies of sports to ensure they operate as effectively as possible.

Working with partners, we develop the people and systems that support our leading Olympic and Paralympic athletes, principally in the areas of coaching, talent identification, performance lifestyle, and sports science and medicine through the Home Nation Institutes.

UK Sport also leads the UK’s major events programme, the Gold Event Series. Funded by £27million of National Lottery money, the Gold Event Series aims to help National Governing Bodies attract and stage some of the most important international sporting events, to help athlete prepare and qualify on the Road to Rio 2016. It also plays a key role in helping to build a strong legacy from the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

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 high performance ambitions.

Elsewhere, UK Sport has an extensive International Relations reach which 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 also leads on ensuring the highest standards of governance within all funded National Governing bodies to ensure they are best placed to deliver outstanding outcomes. 

Based in London, UK Sport is a non-departmental public body and employs around 110 staff overseen by our board, comprising home country representatives and independent members, which meet every two months.

UK Sport is an official National Lottery distributor, if you contact us for any reason you are one of our customers. This customer service charter sets out the service you can expect from us.