Video: Penny Briscoe OBE speaks on Sports Week about the cuts
A British Paralympic Association director thinks that cuts made to sport funding will make it ‘tough for athletes to be optimally prepared’ to win.
Seven Olympic and Paralympic sport bodies lost appeals to UK Sport to review the decision on why they had not been awarded funding, including Paralympic sports wheelchair rugby and goalball.
Director of sport for the British Paralympic Association Penny Briscoe OBE thinks the cuts will be tough.
She said: “The cuts are tough when our responsibility is to take our best prepared team to the games and if sports aren’t funded then by definition it’s tough for the athletes to be optimally prepared.
“We’ve got a challenging three terms ahead in terms of challenging out to Asia for the next three games which is hugely expensive with some very demanding physiological considerations.
“There will be 12, 13 hour flights and a nine hour time shift so to be right to deliver performances in those environments means a lot of time on the ground and that comes with a huge price tag.
“It’s been a tough few weeks since the decisions of the cuts and the review period but I think UK Sport has done an incredible job over the last 20 years.”
Penny says that the challenge is in managing the finite pot of money that UK Sport has.
She said: “If it had more money, then wheelchair rugby and potentially goalball would be funded but they have a system and are trying to fund what it takes to win.
“They have gone down so far that they don’t have any further resources so those that they’ve deemed as probable have got funding and those that have fallen below into a possible category haven’t got funding.
“The challenge now is that there are clearly gaps in the funding framework and how we work as a high performance system to support those athletes and sports that do have the potential to medal at games, albeit Olympic and Paralympic.”
For more from Penny, watch the February 22 episode of Sports Week on Notts TV at 7.30pm, or see our catch up service.
