Yes: Dave Washington
CUTTING ALL funding for handball, basketball, table-tennis and wrestling may seem harsh and wrong on the surface, hindering the future development of such sports, but in reality UK Sport’s motives are understandable.
The primary aim of Olympic funding is to deliver medals, and it’d be fair to say that the prospects of the previously mentioned sports returning from Rio 2016 with medals, regardless of how much money was invested would be highly unlikely.
Handball may have been an Olympic success story, but in reality, we’re not very good at it. Team GB lost all of their group matches, and only participated as we were hosts. In Rio, Team GB wouldn’t be afforded such a luxury, and would have to qualify on merit, a challenging task since the team have only won one competitive fixture since they were reformed in 2008.
The same applies for basketball, whilst in table-tennis and wrestling the prospect of medals would be minimal. Instead the funds have been invested in sports such as rowing and cycling, which have proved they can regularly deliver medals.
The decision may not be universally popular, but whether it was right will ultimately be judged on how Team GB fare in 2016. Results will speak for themselves.
No: Georgina Strapp
MAKING RUTHLESS cuts to sports with less medal-winning potential in Rio totally undermines the ‘legacy’ of London 2012. Basketball, sold out of tickets in London 2012 and the second most popular sport in the world, will not see a GB team in Rio after all its funding was totally removed.
This makes no sense when the 2012 Olympics was placed in Stratford in order togain the imagination and interest of those from less prosperous areas that have been hit hard in the last few years by the credit crunch and riots. It achieved this with 750,000 more people now taking part in sports once a week than in 2011.
These achievements will be undone purely so that we can dominate in a few sports regardless of the wider effect. Basketball has become a huge part of the lives of many but along with handball, table tennis and wrestling will no longer have the chance of representing Great Britain on the biggest stage possible.
This will severely reduce the profile of these sports and therefore public interest in them. As a result the increased fitness of the UK this year is unlikely to be the start of a long-term pattern.