Success at the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics has secured British Cycling a funding boost as it begins its build up towards the Rio de Janeiro Games in 2016. UK Sport is investing a record total of £347 million pounds over the four year cycle, which is an increase of 11% over the total on the build up to London, as Great Britain aims to become the first ever nation to surpass the medal total taken in its home Games.
British Cycling has been allocated £37 million of this, of which £30.4 million is for the Olympic team - an increase of 17.5% - with the remainder going to its Paralympians.
“At British Cycling, we take seriously the responsibility to deliver good value which comes with lottery funding,” said chief executive Ian Drake. “We believe that winning medals is not an end in itself but a means to growing the sport as whole.
“Today’s announcement from UK Sport is recognition of the success of our riders, our coaches and the work we put into identifying new talent,” he continued. “It is also a challenge for us to do better over the next four years – particularly in para-cycling where we have received substantially increased funding.
“In 2012 we have seen unprecedented results for British cyclists but there is still work to be done to improve the sport in this country.”
After dominating in the Beijing velodrome in 2008 - as well as winning gold and silver in the women’s road race and time trial - Great Britain’s cyclists were under pressure to match their results in London 2012. At the Olympics they took eight gold medals, two silver and two bronze; the gold medal tally was matched at the Paralympics, with nine silvers and five bronze.
While the funding is tied to Olympic performance, in the years between 2009 and 2012 British Cycling has delivered a total of 24 World champions - including Emma Pooley’s 2010 time trial title and Mark Cavendish’s 2011 road race win; this summer Bradley Wiggins became the first British rider to win the Tour de France.
The news of the increased UK Sport funding comes the day after Sport England announced the award of £32 million to British Cycling, to develop grass roots cycling over the next four years.