By Steven Oldham
UK Sport's announcement of Rio 2016 funding cycles has today brought bad news for some Olympic sports.
Great Britain's basketball, weightlifting, water polo and synchronised swimming teams will not receive any central funding at all for the next Olympic Games in Brazil.
These sports join handball and wrestling on the scrapheap, shut out by UK Sport's commitment to awarding medal potential in future Games.
These latest cuts are in contrast to other sports who are celebrating receiving a bigger slice of £350m in funding - the winners include hockey, judo and taekwondo.
Unfortunately, the future is not so bright for the sports without funding - GB teams were entered for the first time at London 2012 in basketball and handball, and the water polo teams entered for the first time in over 50 years.
It was obvious without the experience, infrastructure and pedigree of their rivals the British teams would struggle in these events. The athletes are not miracle workers - it's the equivalent of expecting Gibraltar to win Euro 2016 despite never having entered continental competition before.
While funding cuts are nothing new to underachieving sports, the promised legacy of London 2012 will be pretty non existent in these sports now. It's a vicious circle - under performance leads to lower funding, which leads to less money to invest in improving existing talent and attracting newcomers.
Other top-level British Olympic teams have struggled to attract outside commercial sponsorship including rowing, as I blogged last year. If they found it hard to get a deal with all their medals and extra TV coverage, what chance have a group of synchro swimmers got?
It was commendable for the home nations to be represented in every sport at our home Games two years ago. It is equally galling for these smaller sports to be swept under the rug now the Olympic goodwill factor has subsided.
Follow @spoldham on Twitter
Stockport-based NCTJ trained journalist. Seeking relevant employment. Blogging and working in the mean time. Football. F1. Tennis. Olympic sports. Firm believer that minority sports deserve year-round coverage.
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