UK Sport announce additional £11.2m of investment in bid for Paris Olympic and Paralympic success

UK Sport has today confirmed an additional £11.2m of funding into summer Olympic and Paralympic sport to support preparations for the Paris 2024 Games. The investment will be spread across 33 sports including Para table tennis.

These investments have been made possible by the increased Comprehensive Spending Review settlement announced by the Prime Minister in the wake of the Tokyo Olympic Games earlier this year. The news also means that the indicative funding for Paris, announced in December 2020, can now be confirmed for all sports.

The increased investment will allow over 100 athletes to be added to World Class Programmes, which not only has positive implications for Paris, but also helps sports to strengthen the pathway of young athletes who are targeting success at the Los Angeles Games in 2028. British Para table tennis has been awarded one additional athlete place and as a result will receive an increase to its Paris cycle award of £33,000 bringing the total to £3,750,787.

Today’s news comes after the success of Tokyo 2020, where Team GB won 65 medals in 25 disciplines and then ParalympicsGB followed that up by winning 124 medals across a record-breaking 18 sports, including seven medals in table tennis.

Karen Tonge MBE, Chairman of British Para Table Tennis, commented: “This is wonderful news for Para table tennis and we would like to thank UK Sport for their support and their faith in our Performance and Pathway programmes. They deserve huge credit for securing the funding from the Government and we are also indebted to everyone who plays the National Lottery. Our athletes brought home seven medals from Tokyo and their performance continues to inspire our Pathway athletes, some of whom will hopefully be representing their country in Paris or Los Angeles.”

Sally Munday, CEO of UK Sport said: “The collective pride of what our brilliant Olympic and Paralympic athletes achieved in Tokyo this summer still shines brightly. The most exciting element of Tokyo was the breadth of success we saw across both our Olympic and Paralympic teams. To now be in a position to strengthen our investment across so many sports for Paris will undoubtedly help us in our ambition to reach, inspire and unite the nation.

“Seeing first-hand the way our athletes brought the nation together in Tokyo after such a difficult period was uplifting, whether it be the family and friends of Tom Dean cheering him to gold from Maidenhead or the brilliant story of our Wheelchair Rugby squad winning gold.

“While today’s news is about supporting our summer sports on their journey to Paris, fans have just a few weeks to wait for their next Olympic and Paralympic fix as our winter athletes limber up for what promises to be a thrilling Winter Games in Beijing.”

Dame Katherine Grainger, Chair of UK Sport said: “We are extremely grateful to the Prime Minister and Government for continuing to back our sports and athletes. Together with The National Lottery, their support of Olympic and Paralympic sport is the fuel which allows our inspirational athletes to perform and succeed on the world stage.

“We have an ambitious mission to create the greatest decade of extraordinary sporting moments and we know that we have a brilliant cohort of dedicated and hardworking athletes and coaches who can help us achieve that.

“To know that Government share our belief that the iconic moments sport creates can play a powerful and positive role in wider society is a huge boost for everyone working in Olympic and Paralympic sport.”