UK Sport's Success and Failure in Olympics
- UK Sport invested £246 million in the Paris Games' cycle.
- Athletics brought the best return, while hockey yielded the worst results.
- The UK's spending on Olympic boxing bronze raises questions on investment effectiveness.
Great Britain secured only one boxing medal at the recent Olympics, with Lewis Richardson winning bronze in the men’s welterweight category. This achievement came at a staggering cost of over £12 million in funding from UK Sport. The overall performance of Team GB was commendable, finishing with 65 medals, surpassing their target of 50 to 70 medals. Each medal averaged a cost of £3,782,118, following a total investment of £245,837,685 from the government and National Lottery during the Paris Olympic cycle. Cycling emerged as the most expensive and successful sport for Team GB, receiving £29.3 million in funding and yielding 11 medals, including gold for Tim Pidcock in men’s cross-country. The cost per cycling medal was approximately £2.7 million. Other sports that received significant funding included rowing (£23.8 million), sailing (£22.8 million), and athletics (£22.8 million), with rowing producing eight medals and athletics achieving ten, led by Keely Hodgkinson’s gold in the 800m. In contrast, hockey, which received the highest investment without securing any medals, saw both teams exit at the quarter-final stage. Judo and Modern Pentathlon also failed to deliver medals, costing £6.4 million and £5.7 million, respectively. Notably, Tommy Fleetwood’s silver medal in golf incurred no cost to UK Sport, as the sport does not receive Olympic funding. Looking ahead, boxing's future in the Olympics is uncertain, as it is currently not included in the schedule due to ongoing disputes between the International Olympic Committee and the International Boxing Association.