Panel To Monitor 2012 Performance Targets

In order to meet the BOA’s stated aim of fourth place in the medal table at
London 2012, a performance panel has been established which will assess each
Olympic sport and withdraw funding if strict targets are not met in the run-up
to the Games.

Ex-England rugby coach Clive Woodward and former Olympic medallist and BBC
commentator Steve Cram will be part of a six-person panel which will assess each
Olympic sport in the build-up towards London 2012.

Peter Keen, the head of performance at elite sport representative body UK
Sport, said: ‘There is no hiding-place for anyone in the build-up to 2012. The
key message to sports is that they are funded on merit.’

According to the panel’s new judging system, each sport will be graded green,
amber or red according to the progress it is making towards delivering success
in 2012.

A sport graded red can have its government lottery funding reduced, suspended
or withdrawn, or may have its funding routed through an entirely new governing
body.

Keen said: ‘This is about a sense of urgency, about constantly asking what we
can do better. Right now, I would grade us overall as amber. But if a sport has
failed to rise to the challenge, then they will slip out.’

Cram and Woodward – now director of performance at the British Olympic
Association – will also be joined on the panel by Keen and UK Sport’s director
of elite sport, Liz Nicholl.

The panel will meet every three months to assess each sport on three criteria
– the success of its athletes; how good its elite structure is; and how well it
is being run.