1. Current Issues in Sport
UK Sport
Current Issues in Sport

2. Opportunities and Pathways in Sport
The Sports Development Pyramid
Sports’ Development Continuum
Socio-cultural factors influence movement between the different levels
Mass participation v Excellence/Elitism
Talent identification and development initiatives. The concept of talent in sport and links with methods of identifying talent from other countries (for example, SportsSearch in Australia and state-sponsored identification programmes of the former East Germany)
Structure of the World Class Performance Pathway

3. World Class Pathway
The Athletics World Class Pathway is focussed on podium or top 8 success at Olympic and World competitions. For disabled athletes, the target is podium at World Championships and Paralympics
There are two components of the World Class Pathway, Podium and Development. Athletes currently just below WCPP level will be considered for the UKA Futures Programme

4. Performance Funnels
Performance Funnels are another way to help identify whether athletes are on the right path to World/Olympic finals and the podium
They don’t give a complete answer to the question “will Athlete ‘A’ win the 100m in London 2012”, but they are useful and objective tools that help to predict if an athlete has a realistic chance of success
The concept is quite simple: an athlete compares their annual season’s best to the year-by-year progression of previous major championship’s finalists and medallists

6. Factors affecting movement up the pyramid
Ability/performance
Finance/income
Leisure time
Education
Physical education
Resources
Family
Peer pressure
Role models
Facilities
Transport

7. World Class Development
UK Sport has a very clear remit at the ‘top end’ of Britain’s sport, with no direct involvement in community or school sport
1,200 of our leading athletes at the Podium and Development levels benefit from an annual investment of around £100 million
World Class Performance Pathway
World Class Podium
(a max. of four years away from the podium)
World Class Development
(realistic medal winning capabilities for 2016)
typically 6 years away from the podium
World Class Talent
maximum of 8 years away from the podium

8. Promoting Sport in the UK
Elite Sport
Mass Participation
UK Sport - No Compromise - World Class Performance Pathway (Podium, Development, Talent)
Talent Identification: Olympic Specific, Girls for Gold, Pitch2 Podium
Tall and Talented/Paralympic Potential Talent 2012
EIS Support for Athletes - The EIS has more than 250 sport science and medicine practitioners working across 10 areas of expertise. The give 4,000 hours support to over 1,500 athletes weekly working with over 40 Olympic sports
Sport England – Grow, Sustain, Excel
Creating a sporting habit for life -Sport England strategy : Funding for : NGB – £450 Million, Facilities- £250 million, local areas and schools
Develop 40,000 Volunteer ‘Sports Makers’
School Sports Partnerships: SSCO, UK School Olympics ,Junior Athletic Education programme ,
‘The 5 hour offer’
“Playground to podium” – nurturing disabled young people and adults with potential to be elite athletes

9. Elite from Participation/Performance example
Are you:
A male or female athlete aged between 17 and 25?
Fast, powerful and competitive?
Currently competing in any sport at a regional level or above?
If so we want to hear from you!
No previous experience in Skeleton is required; we are looking for athletes with the raw talent and capacity to develop under the guidance of elite coaches in a world class environment
The closing date for Power2Podium: Skeleton is midnight on 6th April 2014

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Power2Podium: Skeleton is a nationwide search for fast, powerful and competitive male and female athletes who have the passion and drive to become Olympic champions in Skeleton. It is a golden opportunity to develop your potential and become part of Britain’s Sporting Elite at the Olympic Games

12. UK Sport – No Compromise
A commitment to channel the resources needed towards athletes and sports with the greatest chance of succeeding on the world stage, both in the immediate future and in the longer term
No Compromise demands we reinforce excellence, support talent, challenge under-performance and reject mediocrity
Put simply, we strive to invest the right resources, in the right athletes, for the right reasons
This approach, along with record levels of investment from the National Lottery, Exchequer and Team 2012 helped Great Britain achieve 65 Olympic medals and 120 Paralympic medals at London 2012

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Some 1,300 of the nation’s leading athletes at the Podium and Podium Potential levels alone
The Programme works by ensuring that athletes get the support – delivered through their sport’s national governing body – that they need at every stage of their development
Having run the Programme since 1997 and with the benefit of lessons learned over the Sydney and Athens Olympiads, UK Sport developed a 'No Compromise' approach, which ultimately means taking no short cuts in resourcing the best athletes to realise their medal ambitions
Podium and Podium Potential level athletes will be surrounded by a performance programme that includes coaching, training and competition support, medical and scientific services and access to the best facilities that the UK (and often the World) has to offer