UK Sport

We use cookies to track and analyse visitors to our website

These cookies help make the website usable by enabling basic functions like page navigation. They are necessary for our website to function and cannot be switched off.
These cookies gather information to understand how visitors interact with the website, such as how many people are using our website of which pages are popular to help us improve user experience. Switching off these cookies will mean that we cannot gather information to improve the user experience.
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by a third party provider whose services we have added to our website. Switching off these cookies mean that areas of our website cannot work properly.

Cookies are small text files that can be used by websites to make a user's experience more efficient.

The law states that we can store cookies on your device if they are strictly necessary for the operation of this site.

For all other types of cookies we need your permission.

This site uses different types of cookies. Some cookies are placed by third party services that appear on our pages.

You can at any time change or withdraw your consent from the Cookie Declaration on our website.

Learn more about who we are, how you can contact us and how we process personal data in our Privacy Policy.

Skip navigation
the national lottery
Twitter Facebook Youtube
  • About Us
    • UK Sport Structure
    • Board
    • Panels
    • Partners
    • English Institute of Sport
    • Accessibility
    • Contact Us
    • Media Centre
    • FAQs
    • Working at UK Sport
  • Our Work
    • Investing in Sport
    • Investing in Events
    • Talent ID
    • World Class Programme
    • Coaching
    • International Relations
    • Leadership Development & Governance
  • Events
  • News
  • Sports
    Olympic Sports
    • Archery
    • Artistic Swimming
    • Athletics
    • Badminton
    • Basketball
    • Boxing (Amateur)
    • Canoeing
    • Climbing
    • Curling
    • View all
    Paralympic Sports
    • Boccia
    • Para Shooting
    • Goalball
    • Para-Alpine Skiing
    • Para-Archery
    • Para-Athletics
    • Para-Canoe
    • Para-Cycling
    • Para-Equestrian Dressage
    • View all
  • Resources
    • Annual Reports
    • A Code for Sports Governance
    • HR Policy Templates
    • Reports
    • Board Minutes
    • Business Plan
    • Complaints and Whistleblowing
    • British Cycling Independent Review
    • Eligibility
    • Fraud, Corruption and Bribery
    • High Performance System Advisory Group
    • Privacy Policies
    • Publication Scheme
    • Recruitment Framework
    • Tenders
    • Transparency and Open Data
    • Welsh Language Scheme
  • Covid-19
  • Jobs in Sport
    • Submit a Job
  • About Us
    • UK Sport Structure
    • Board
    • Panels
    • Partners
    • English Institute of Sport
    • Accessibility
    • Contact Us
    • Media Centre
    • FAQs
    • Working at UK Sport
  • Our Work
    • Investing in Sport
    • Investing in Events
    • Talent ID
    • World Class Programme
    • Coaching
    • International Relations
    • Leadership Development & Governance
  • Events
  • News
  • Sports
    Olympic Sports
    • Archery
    • Artistic Swimming
    • Athletics
    • Badminton
    • Basketball
    • Boxing (Amateur)
    • Canoeing
    • Climbing
    • Curling
    • View all
    Paralympic Sports
    • Boccia
    • Para Shooting
    • Goalball
    • Para-Alpine Skiing
    • Para-Archery
    • Para-Athletics
    • Para-Canoe
    • Para-Cycling
    • Para-Equestrian Dressage
    • View all
  • Resources
    • Annual Reports
    • A Code for Sports Governance
    • HR Policy Templates
    • Reports
    • Board Minutes
    • Business Plan
    • Complaints and Whistleblowing
    • British Cycling Independent Review
    • Eligibility
    • Fraud, Corruption and Bribery
    • High Performance System Advisory Group
    • Privacy Policies
    • Publication Scheme
    • Recruitment Framework
    • Tenders
    • Transparency and Open Data
    • Welsh Language Scheme
  • Covid-19
  • Jobs in Sport
    • Submit a Job
Press Enter to Search
Investing in Sport

How UK Sport funding works

Please click here to find out more about how we will continue to invest in Olympic and Paralympic sport ahead of the re-arranged Tokyo Games, and in the build-up to Paris 2024. This page will be updated in due course.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The primary role of UK Sport is to strategically invest National Lottery and Exchequer income to maximise the performance of UK athletes in the Olympic and Paralympic Games and the global events which precede them.

Investment decisions are made on a four year basis wherever possible to cover a complete Olympic or Paralympic cycle but are focussed on an eight year performance development model.

Success is measured by the medals won, the number of medallists developed, and the quality of the systems and processes in place to find and support the nation’s most promising future champions.

To achieve this UK Sport invests around 70 per cent of its income through two channels:

  1. Central funding for sporting National Governing Bodies (NGBs), enabling them to operate a World Class Programme (WCP) and ensuring athletes have access to outstanding support personnel and training environments to ensure they are among the best prepared in the world.
  2. Direct to athlete funding in the shape of an Athlete Performance Award (APA). This award, which is solely funded by National Lottery income, is paid directly to the athletes and contributes to their living and sporting costs.

UK Sport also makes significant investment in its partners including the English Institute of Sport and other Home Country Sports Institutes and the British Olympic and Paralympic (BOA & BPA) preparation plans for the Rio 2016 Games including the preparation camp itself at Belo Horizonte.

UK Sport also runs a number of world leading centralised strategic support services including the development of world class coaches and running talent identification
campaigns to fast track future medallists in to the right sports.

Programme Support

  • World Class Coaches
  • Sports science and medicine
  • Warm weather training and acclimatisation
  • International competition schedules
  • Athlete development programmes
  • Access to high performance training facilities

Athlete Performance Awards

APAs serve to contribute to the athlete’s ordinary living costs and their personal sporting costs. APAs are allocated where there is the greatest ‘financial need’ and are subject to a means testing exercise. UK Sport has set a maximum income threshold of £65,000 (including their APA) above which an athlete's APA will begin to be deducted pound for pound.

The level of APA received is determined by a number of criteria, not least of which is the level of performance an athlete has achieved and is capable of producing in the future. While there are variances depending on the sport, two performance categories apply for ‘Podium’ level athletes:

  • Band A – Medallists at Olympic Games or Senior World Championships or gold medallists at Paralympic Games or Senior World Championships
  • Band B – a minimum of a top 8 finish at Olympic Games or Senior World Championships or medallists at Paralympic Games or Senior World Championships

Athletes on Podium level funding can currently receive APAs to the value of: 

  • Band A – up to £28,000 pa
  • Band B - up to £21,500 pa

Funding is awarded on the basis of an Olympic cycle and commences on 1 April (1st October for Winter Sports) in the year immediately following a Games, for a period of four years.

Share
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
News
National Squads
UK Sport to invest £2.4m in eight further sports as part of National Squads Support Fund
30 March 2021
Gymnastics Review Quote
Joint UK Sport and Sport England statement on the publication of the Whyte Review interim report
9 March 2021
Medals&More
Medals & More: A Conversation with Dame Katherine Grainger - Season 2 Episode 6
8 March 2021
Sport jobs in the UK
Find & advertise UK based sports jobs here
Read more
Funding Partners
  • DCMS
  • TNL partners
Official Partners
  • BAES logo
  • BUPA
Strategic Partners
  • British Olympic Association
  • Paralympics GB
  • Sport England
  • Sport Northern Ireland
  • Sport Wales
  • Sport Scotland
Sitelogo
Sitemap
  • Homepage
  • About Us
  • Our Work
  • Events
  • News
  • Sports
  • Resources
  • Covid-19
  • Jobs in Sport
  • UK Sport Editorial Policy
  • Freedom of Information Act 2000
  • Website Terms
  • Accessibility
  • Cookies Policy
  • FAQs
Contact
UK Sport
21 Bloomsbury Street
London
WC1B 3HF
E: info@uksport.gov.uk
T: +44 (0) 20 7211 5100
Follow us
Twitter Facebook Youtube Instagram

Equality in Sport for information on The Equality Start for Sport Explore UK Sport

© Copyright UK Sport 2020