Good news for British Olympic and Paralympic squads

Great news for the British Olympic badminton squad from UK Sport yesterday : one year after the huge cut in funding, badminton will benefit from a 2-year Olympic funding of £630,000 (€720,000). But the biggest surprise came from the allocation of even more funding – £960,000 – for the para-badminton squad, in what may be a first in the history of the sport.

By Raphael Sachetat.  Photos Badmintonphoto

The struggle comes to an end. A year after the bad news for the sport that the UK governing body had basically cut down all funding for the national team, it was with great relief that Badminton England (BE) welcome the decision of UK Sport to partially reverse that decision and allocate £630,000 on a two-year plan towards Tokyo 2020.

“We were understandably very disappointed by the decisions taken by UK Sport 12 months ago but we re-grouped and came back stronger, determined to continue to support the Performance Programme to the best we could and achieve what we always said was likely,” said Adrian Christy, BE’s Chief Executive.

“I cannot praise the whole team highly enough; the resilience has been remarkable.  We have just seen one of the most successful medal-winning years in the recent history of the sport. We have champions of Europe, Olympic and World medallists and a pathway of talent winning junior titles – as we look to Tokyo and beyond, we are in great shape.

“So, today’s news is welcome and we understand the new funding stream is somewhat experimental but it presents us with an opportunity to complement the programme and to invest some additional resource into our medal aspirations in Tokyo,”  he added.

But even better news awaits the para-badminton squad, as the overall Olympic programme for para-badminton – which will make its Olympic debut in Tokyo’s Paralympic Games – is 30% more than their compatriots at £960,000.

The sum is probably explained by the potential higher chances of British para-badminton players to clinch medals in Tokyo. But it is most probably a first in the history of the sport that funding for para-badminton is higher than for their non-para counterparts.  It is a clear sign that Paralympic sport is on the rise and good news for all those in our sport who have been waiting for years and will finally get the chance to shine under the Olympic spotlight.

Full article here