THE UK is on course to become one of the world’s top five sporting nations by 2012 according to Sir Rodney Walker, Chairman of UK Sport.
Sir Rodney was speaking as UK Sport unveiled its 2001/2002 Annual Review – The Road to Athens - and outlined its ten-year vision for British sport at its annual open meeting on Monday.
"With exactly two years to go until the next Olympic and Paralympic Games, let there be no doubt that the public is hungry for sporting success," the Chairman explained. "A recent NOP survey found that 74 per cent of the public thought that British success at the 2004 Athens Olympics is important.
"Being a public organisation, the job of UK Sport, more than anything, is to help satisfy that demand."
"The first chapter of our history has been one of evolution rather than revolution," Sir Rodney continued. "It has been a period in which we have been tuning, adjusting and prioritising rather than having to redefine our territory.
"With much of this thinking having come to fruition over the last year, we are now clearer than we have ever been about how to invest our resources, how to marshal technical support for athletes to maximise performance, how to engage sports in the fight against doping and how to support governing bodies in the drive to raise standards of governance.
"That clarity has now given us the confidence to set out our purposes, our goals and our objectives.
"At UK Sport, our sense is that the UK should, by any yardstick, be aiming to become one of the world’s top five sporting nations. Starting now, we are making this our ten-year mission – our overall goal."
Sir Rodney went on to highlight a number of key milestones achieved by the organisation over the last 12 months, joined by three guest speakers who emphasised the contribution that UK Sport has made to their work.
Phil Lane, Chief Executive of the British Paralympic Association, outlined the impact that UK Sport’s £1.7million award to Paralympic sport will have on the fortunes of British athletes competing in Athens.
Brian Morrison, who played a key role in staging the 2001 World Senior Amateur Boxing Championships in Belfast – an event supported by UK Sport through the World Class Performance Programme – stressed the legacy that hosting the championships has left in the city.
Finally, Andrew Finding, Chief Executive of the British Equestrian Federation and a strong advocate of drug-free sport, explained why the BEF was quick to sign up to the new Anti-Doping Policy launched by UK Sport earlier this year and the benefits it will bring.