2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games: UK Sport to invest record £330m in British Olympic and Paralympic sports
By Ben Southby
Published 16/12/2024 at 21:43 GMT
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UK Sport has made its "greatest investment to date" with a £330 million injection into British Olympic and Paralympic sports ahead of the 2028 Games in Los Angeles. UK Sport's Dr Kate Baker said that "it's so important for us to be able to keep the momentum going" after a brilliant showing at Paris 2024, while CEO Sally Munday said she wants GB to be "consistently top five" in the medal table.
Paris hands Olympic flag over to Los Angeles for 2028 Games
Video credit: TNT Sports
UK Sport has announced it will invest a record £330 million into British sport ahead of the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Los Angeles – the organisation's "greatest investment to date".
Over 50 sports will receive funding, which includes new sports baseball/softball, flag football, lacrosse, para-climbing and squash.
Athletics has had its funding reduced for the second cycle in succession, while breaking – which is no longer an Olympic sport – will not benefit.
UK Athletics CEO Jack Buckner said the organisation was left "disappointed" with the decision to cut the sport's share by £1.725m.
For Basketball, the sport "has entered a new era" according to British Basketball Federation chair Chris Grant, after benefitting from a share of £2.925m to improve the 3x3 format.
With the addition of athlete performance awards – which athletes are paid to help support their living and sporting costs – funding will rise to more than £400m in total.
"It's so important for us to be able to keep the momentum going as we head into the LA cycle," UK Sport director of performance and people Dr Kate Baker said.
"This is our greatest investment to date, with more sports set to embark on an Olympic and Paralympic campaign with us than ever before.
"I’m excited to work with the new sports receiving investment from us for the first time and warmly welcome them to our Olympic and Paralympic community."
She added: "With every Games cycle comes new sports and athletes with new stories to tell and inspiration to share.
"With our investment supporting more breadth than ever before, as well as the entertainment, drama and spectacle we’ll no doubt experience from a Games taking place in LA, I can’t wait to see what our athletes can achieve in four years’ time."
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Team GB finished seventh in the medal table in Paris, three spots below their fourth-placed finish at the Covid-19-impacted Tokyo 2020 Games in 2021.
They won 65 medals in France, one more than the 64 they picked up in the Japanese capital, and UK Sport chief executive officer Sally Munday said she wants GB to be "consistently top five".
Munday said: "We'll be really forensic; were there contributing factors that we could do differently to make sure that we don't find ourselves in that position again?
"We will be leaving no stone unturned to make sure that we've really understood what the factors are as to why we came seventh. But we're very clear we want to be consistently top five."
Paralympics GB won 124 medals at the Games in France and finished second in the overall table, only behind China.
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