• 21 Olympic and Paralympic sports now given an overall rating of green on UK Sport’s performance management system
• New Mission 2012 Panel requires selection of members as process evolves to continue beyond London
British success in London 2012 is absolutely on track as more sports begin to realise their potential on the international stage. UK Sport’s latest analysis of Britain’s summer Olympic and Paralympic sports through its Mission 2012 process shows a high performance system in the UK that is producing outstanding results on the sporting field, with 2010 proving to be the most successful year ever at this stage of any Olympic and Paralympic cycle.
The findings, which are published the day before UK Sport separately confirms the results of its Annual Review of Investment for 2010, show that this year seen ‘established’ sports such as Rowing, Cycling, Sailing and Equestrian, who delivered 28 medals between them in World Championships in 2010 in Olympic disciplines, continue to deliver. However it has also seen breakthrough performances on the world stage from Olympic sports such as Hockey, Canoeing, Gymnastics, and Paralympic sports such as Visually Impaired Judo, where Britain has its first World Champion in 12 years.
Of the 27 Olympic sports assessed through Mission 2012, 12 are now rated as green overall, the most ever since Mission 2012 began in January 2008, with 15 rated amber and no sport given an overall rating of red. Paralympic sport told a similar story with Para-Equestrian Dressage, which won a record 13 World Championship medals in 2010 including seven Golds, remaining on a green rating overall and being joined by eight other sports, again the highest ever since the Mission 2012 assessments began. The remaining nine sports were rated amber and no Paralympic sport rated as an overall red.
Commenting on the most recent set of results, UK Sport Chief Executive Liz Nicholl, said: “Our Mission 2012 tracker boards show us that British Olympic and Paralympic sports are doing a fantastic job and continuing to improve as we get ever closer to 2012. 2010 has seen many first time winners and many best ever performances on the international stage, and the hard work of athletes, coaches and the whole sporting system is ensuring we are in tremendous shape with less than 20 months to go.”
Mission 2012 requires sports to think about their performance plans in three dimensions based around their athletes, their system and the climate within the sport. With less than two years to go to the London Games, UK Sport has increased the scope of its ‘Mission’ process to cover both plans for the Winter Games in Sochi 2014 and early thinking for the next Summer Games in Rio 2016. With this in mind, UK Sport has effectively dissolved the existing Mission 2012 Panels to create a new extended Panel and has embarked on the process of seeking a minimum of six members from the high-performance community and beyond. With the Panel needing to identify world leading practice within sports and respond to challenges facing the system, the recruitment of members with very specific expertise is critical and these positions will be advertised shortly on the UK Sport website.