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Introduction

The Open University — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 08:49:08 GMT

Some elite athletes in the United Kingdom are provided with financial support to allow them to train and prepare for competition. Where does the money come from to finance this? This unit will examine this question by looking at the funding of elite sport in the UK.

This unit is an adapted extract from the Open University course Introduction to sport, fitness and management (E112)

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Learning outcomes

The Open University — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 08:49:08 GMT

By the end of this unit you should be able to:

begin to recognise how elite sport is funded in the UK.

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1 Elite sport

The Open University — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 08:49:08 GMT

In this unit we will consider organisation and funding issues in elite sport. As with public sector sport, at the grass roots level a number of different organisations are involved, and it is difficult to identify clear leadership of this area. The National Lottery has had a major influence on the funding of our top sports people and the approach we take here is to look at how funding and organisation issues impact on one athlete, in this instance Shelly Woods (British wheelchair racing record holder and London Marathon winner). We explore the range of organisations that she interacts with and her funding, which sets the scene for reading the extract in Activity 2.

The video clip in Activity 1 was filmed at Stoke Mandeville Stadium in Buckinghamshire, the stadium that has become known as the ‘birthplace of the Paralympic Games’. Before starting the activity, have a look at Box 1 below to find out a little more about Shelly.

Box 1: Shelly Woods profile

Figure 1: Shelly Woods

Date of birth

4 June 1986

Hometown

Blackpool

Disciplines

800, 1500 and 5000 metres + marathon

How did you get involved in sport?

After wanting to be involved in sport after my accident [in 1997, aged 11], I was always an active youngster. I sampled a few sports as a junior including basketball and found pentathlon, then decided to concentrate on my one true passion – wheelchair racing.

(Source: BWRA, 2008)

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2 Activities

The Open University — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 08:49:08 GMT

Activity 1: Shelly Woods, funding and organisation

0 hours 40 minutes

View the tasters video where you will see Shelly Woods in action during a tough fitness test.

Next visit the websites for WheelPower (the national charity for wheelchair sport) and UK Athletics. Using these websites as a starting point note down:

who might fund elite athletes such as Shelly;
signs of sponsorship on any of the websites you visit and the companies involved.

You may also need to use an internet search engine to expand your search further.

Discussion

Since 1997, National Lottery money has been permitted to be used to fund elite athletes’ preparation and training. UK Sport distributes these funds to national governing bodies, such as UK Athletics, which fund top athletes. The British Paralympic Association, a charity, sends a multi-sport team to the Paralympic Games.
In terms of sponsorship, keep in mind any observations you made, and we will return to this in the Discussion of Activity 2.

Thinking about elite athletes such as Shelly brings us to the reading in Activity 2, which addresses the organisation of elite sport. Note that the the reading excludes professional sports since, although played at an elite level, they ‘are self-financing commercial (private) operations and therefore not within the scope of this discussion’.

Activity 2 Reading

0 hours 20 minutes

Open the extract below and read the section entitled ‘Elite sport’, which includes a flow diagram about the funding of elite sport (Figure 3.3 in the reading). As you read this short section consider where Shelly fits into Figure 3.3.

Click ‘View Document’ to read the extract.

View document

Discussion

Athletes such as Shelly fit into the bottom part of Figure 3.3 under the heading ‘Coaches/athletes/equipment/training camps’. We know that the National Lottery is the main funding source (via UK Athletics) but high-profile athletes and sports often supplement this with corporate sponsorship. This links back to Activity 1 since there was evidence on the UK Athletics website in 2007 that its sponsors were Norwich Union (an insurance company), while the British Paralympic Association website had the support of Lloyds TSB (the bank). This represents private sector input to Olympic/Paralympic sport.

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Next steps

The Open University — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 08:49:08 GMT

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References

The Open University — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 08:49:08 GMT

BWRA (2008) ‘Profile: Shelly Woods’ accessed 27 February 2008.

Except for third party materials and otherwise stated (see terms and conditions), this content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Licence

Acknowledgements

The Open University — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 08:49:08 GMT

The content acknowledged below is used under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Licence. See terms and conditions.

Grateful acknowledgement is made to:

Figures

Text

The material acknowledged below appears in: Ben Oakley and Martin Rhys (eds) (2008) The Sport and Fitness Sector: an introduction, published by Routledge in association with The Open University. This book is course reader for the Open University course E112 Introduction to Sport, Fitness and Management.

Figure 3.4 The Department of Culture, Media and Sport ‘Indicative sports funding flows: a simplified national model’, Review of National Sport Effort and Resources, 2005, p. 21. © Crown Copyright, 2005.

Video materials

Unit image

Michael Clarke [Details correct as of 17th June 2008]

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