UK Sport has today announced the appointment of Dr Kate Baker as Director of Performance.
Dr Baker, who will take up her new role in May, joins from The Football Association where she heads up the Performance Insight team. She joins UK Sport’s Executive Team with a remit to lead UK Sport’s Performance Teams and their investment into and support of athletes across Olympic and Paralympic sports.
Dr Baker previously worked with UK Sport as Head of Performance Pathways and also led sports science and nutrition programmes at Saracens RFC. She holds a PhD in Sport Science from Durham University and has also been Programme Leader for Sports Science at the London Metropolitan University.
Sally Munday, UK Sport CEO said, “Throughout a highly competitive selection process, Kate demonstrated in-depth understanding and hands-on experience of the challenges and opportunities facing performance sport.Having worked across Olympic and Paralympic sport, professional sports and in several dynamic performance consultancy roles, Kate brings a breadth of experience which will be a huge asset to UK Sport and the wider high-performance community.
“She set out an exciting vision for the future and showed a genuine commitment to people-first leadership. I’m excited to formally welcome her to the team and have no doubt she will play a hugely important role in helping to ensure Olympic and Paralympic sport remains successful, relevant and impactful.”
Dame Katherine Grainger, Chair of UK Sport added, “Dr Baker joins us at a hugely important and exciting time for high performance sport in the UK, with an Olympic and Paralympic Games on the horizon. Kate will play an integral role in our team; bringing exceptional performance experience, vision and strong values to ensure our Olympic and Paralympic teams are supported in their ambition to achieve great sporting success. I very much look forward to working with her.”
Dr Baker said: “I’m thrilled to be returning to work directly in Olympic and Paralympic sport once again and taking on this challenging but hugely exciting role at UK Sport. I know from previous experience the calibre of talent within UK Sport and across the high-performance system and can’t wait to get started and build strong and collaborative relationships at what I see as a critical time for the future of our sector and sport more generally.”
Dr Baker takes on the role following the departure of Michael Bourne who joined the Lawn Tennis Association as Performance Director in October 2020.