UK Sport rejects all seven appeals against zero funding for Tokyo 2020 Olympics
By Andy Charles
Last Updated: 20/02/17 4:13pm
UK Sport has rejected the appeals of all seven sports that will receive no funding for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games cycle.
Badminton, fencing, archery, weightlifting, table tennis, wheelchair rugby and goalball had all appeared earlier this month after their funding was either removed or not awarded.
The only change in funding sees British Weightlifting given control of the £1.3m budget for the Paralympic sport of powerlifting, rather than it be managed by the English Institute of Sport.
The appeals process might not be over, though, as they can launch further appeals to Sport Resolutions UK, the independent body for dispute revolution in sport in the United Kingdom.
A total of £345m is being invested by UK Sport in 31 sports, but none of that will go to the seven sports affected.
Badminton is the biggest loser, having received £5.7m in the Rio 2016 funding cycle - it is also the only sport on the list in which Team GB secured a medal last summer.
Marcus Ellis and Chris Langridge came back from Rio with a bronze medal from the men's doubles event.
A statement from GB Badminton soon after the decision read: "We are staggered by this decision.
"Given the strength of evidence we were able to present to justify investment, we cannot believe UK Sport has concluded that they should stand by their decision and award zero funding to our GB programme.
"We have players who are on track to win medals for the nation at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and our belief in those players remains as great as it's ever been. We will now take some time to consider our next steps."
Fencing has lost £4.2m in funding, archery loses £2.9m, weightlifting a total of £1.7m and wheelchair rugby £3m.
Table tennis and goalball were not funded in the Rio cycle after receiving £1.2m and £500,000 respectively for the London 2012 cycle.
Table Tennis England chief executive Sara Sutcliffe said: "We are naturally disappointed, having made what we believe was a very strong case for a relatively small amount of funding.
"We overachieved on everything we were asked to do in the 2016 cycle, and did so without funding. We were left without funding because, effectively, the goalposts were moved.
"We will now take time to absorb this decision before we decide on the best course of action from this point. We remain committed to finding a way to fund our performance programme through to Tokyo and to build on the amazing progress made by our athletes and coaching staff in recent years."
Rod Carr, chairman of UK Sport, said: "I'd like to thank all the sports for their professionalism and openness throughout this process. Our decision is in no way a reflection on them, their athletes or support personnel and everything that they have achieved to date.
"I appreciate that for the majority of national governing bodies that attended the representation meetings today's outcome is extremely disappointing.
"We are operating in a tight financial envelope, and have responsibilities to both develop the system underpinning our best athletes as well as the sports and athletes themselves, and sadly our investment won't stretch to these sports for the Tokyo 2020 cycle."
