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| Bronze winnners Chris Langridge & Marcus Ellis (The Telegraph) |
By Steven Oldham
A first Olympic medal in 12 years in Rio wasn't sufficient enough for Team GB's elite badminton players as UK Sport today surprisingly withdrew all financial support for the Tokyo 2020 cycle.
The controversial decision to cut badminton's comparatively modest £5.7m funding (in contrast, GB's rowers gained £32.6m towards Rio) leaves the team's top players looking at uncertain futures leading to the next Olympiad.
Chris Langridge and Marcus Ellis became the country's first badminton players to secure an Olympic medal in over a decade by winning bronze in the men's doubles in Rio.
UK Sport had only set the team a target of 0-1 medals at this Games, and their statement today gave no reason as to why badminton funding was removed regardless of Langridge and Ellis' success.
Archery, fencing, weightlifting and wheelchair rugby also became victims of UK Sport's successful but ruthless policy which rewards sports with 'podium potential' only.
The policy definitely gets results, but at what cost? The much-discussed legacy of London 2012 in Great Britain will again be debated as the list of non-funded sports grows ever longer.
Team sports including handball, basketball and synchronised swimming were jettisoned as soon as London was over. The 'Inspire a Generation' tagline will be a failure if children see no progression to the top in these sports. Basketball is one of the country's most popular sports by participation but the national team will only go so far without solid financial backing.
In contrast, 42% of UK Sport funding now goes to just 4 sports - rowing, athletics, sailing and cycling.
Any potential funding for the new sports to the Olympic programme - including karate, surfing and sports climbing - will be decided at a later date.
WINNERS AND LOSERS:
Rowing continues to be the best funded Olympic sport, at £32.1m over the next four years. This is down roughly £500,000 on the Rio cycle. Many sports take a small hit as overall funding is reduced by £9m to £265m.
Britain's shooters are the big winners in this round of funding, with their figures bucking the trend, leaping to £7m from £3.9m. Two bronze medals in Rio could be considered a lesser haul than Peter Wilson's solitary gold medal from London 2012.
Hockey and gymnastics both receive an extra £2m, with the gold-medal winning exploits of the women's hockey team and double-champion Max Whitlock.
British Cycling, however, has lost over £4m despite dominating once again in Rio, a Games in which Laura Kenny became the most successful British female Olympian of all time.
In the Paralympics, the loss of wheelchair rugby funding is compounded by rises for the majority of other disability sports, including an eye-catching 342% increase in wheelchair fencing funding to £668,000. Para-athletics takes over from swimming as the most funded sport with £11.8m to swimming's £11m.
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