The UK government has agreed to give UK Sport approximately £5million ($6.2million/€5.6million) to support national governing bodies (NGBs) ahead of the 2021 Olympic Games.
UK Sport is the governing body for Olympic and Paralympic sports in Great Britain, sponsoring 48 different disciplines across the two competitions.
The funds will allow NGBs to book locations for their Olympic qualification competitions, pay staff, and organize training camps for their athletes.
Speaking about the agreement, UK Sport chief executive Sally Munday said, “Today’s confirmation of support for Olympic and Paralympic sport through to the rescheduled Tokyo Games is hugely important as it allows NGBs to commit to their revised plans for the Games next summer.”
“For sports fans everywhere this is also a significant step as we all look forward to watching our brilliant Olympic and Paralympic athletes perform on the world stage and inspire the nation once again. The new continuity fund will help in our efforts to maintain and enable a thriving high-performance sporting system in the UK.”
This news comes following an earlier report that UK Sport requested £53.4m in funding from the UK government to help their athlete prepare for the delayed Tokyo Olympic Games.
Due to the coronavirus, the Olympic Games were postponed from July 24-August 9, 2020 until July 23-August 9, 2021, while the Paralympic Games were rescheduled from 25 August to 6 September 2020 until August 24-September 5, 2021.
Postponing the Games is set to cost the Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee approximately $800 million, with the overall cost of the Games expected to reach up to $12 billion. However, the Committee has not released its actual costs yet.
