In an article published by the BBC one of the areas that may be effected most by the cuts in funding that British Swimming announced yesterday is the Swansea Training Centre.
With the reduction of £4 million of funding towards British Swimming the discussions on where the cost saving measures will come have begun. Robert James, Chief Executive of Welsh Swimming, told the BBC that he would be involved in ‘intense’ discussions pertaining to the funding cuts.
“In Britain the first thing we’re going to look at is our intensive training centres, we presently have five in swimming,” he told BBC Radio Wales.
“Swansea is one of the ITCs, there’s one in Stirling in Scotland, Stockport, Loughborough and Bath.”
“I’ve got an intense meeting tomorrow [Wednesday] with the Welsh Swimming Board just to go through where we can look at making savings and how we can help British Swimming maintain the centre here in Swansea.”
Swimmers that train out of Swansea include;
Jemma Lowe placed sixth in the 100 butterfly at the 2012 Olympic and most recently won a bronze in both the 100 and 200 butterfly at this year’s Short Course World Championships
Georgia Davies was part of the British Olympic competing in the 100 backstroke. Davies also placed fourth in the 50 backstroke and fifth in the 100 backstroke at this year’s Short Course World Championships.
Jazmin Carlin collected two medals, silver in the 200 freestyle and bronze in the 400 freestyle at the 2010 Commonwealth Games. At the most recent Short Course World Championships Carlin came fifth in the 400 freestyle.
It was reported that James felt that nothing and no one would be immune to cuts, including staff and facilities. Even though he may eventually be the barrier of bad news, in his comments he said that he would be fighting for the training centre especially after the recent success of the Swansea based swimmers.
Australian Funding Cuts May Be on the Horizon
With Australia’s the new ‘Winning Edge’ sports model it is clear that many sports will see their funding effected based on potential and proven success on the international stage.
In an interview with The Australian Matt Favier, the Director of the Australian Institute of Sport shared many of his thoughts on what may happen going forward.
“I think the principles of the approach the British have taken, in looking for a genuine return on their investment, are in line with our approach, although the landscape is slightly different,” said Favier.
“A sport like swimming will need to present a strong case to retain its level of investment, and to increase funding they will need to show they have a genuine opportunity to improve their outcome, but that will also apply to all sports.”
“We are asking sports to take a longer-term view, but with a particular four-year focus.”
“We want to know who the athletes are who are eight years out and 12 years out. That’s been left to the sports in the past but we want to be confident that they can answer that question and we want to track those athletes over a longer period.”
You can read the details of how the decisions for sports funding will be determined here
