Britain's sports will get an extra £13m in preparation for London 2012

Britain's Olympic and Paralympic sports have been handed an extra £13m to boost medal hopes and help ensure a smooth build-up to the 2012 Games in London.

The Team 2012 initiative has generated £6.5m while another £6.5m was raised after UK Sport adjusted the inflation level in all previously-made awards.

Of the 12 sports which missed out on full 2012 funding, 11 have had their funding doubled for performing well.

The additional money will help to plug the £50m gap in funding for 2012.

That shortfall, mainly a result of the financial pressures brought about by the recession, was partly addressed by a recent sponsorship deal with Visa.

The Team 2012 initiative aims to help Britain's 1,200 Olympic and Paralympic athletes for the London Games by providing a third stream of financial support from the private sector, complementing the support already provided by Government and the Lottery.

The initiative is a partnership between the British Olympic Association (BOA), ParalympicsGB, the London Organising Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) and UK Sport.

Table tennis is the only sport not to have its funding increased after missing out initially.

Its award has been deferred until next year, which means its funding will remain at £1.2m while it works with UK Sport to implement the performance changes needed to ensure success at London 2012 and beyond.

Among the other Olympic sports which were already on full funding, badminton, which won a silver in the mixed doubles at Athens 2004, has suffered a cut from £8.63m to £7.97m.

Badminton England have accepted that change and realise the recent retirement of two of the country's better players, Gail Emms and Donna Kellogg, make it understandable.

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"Our funding adjustment was always likely to reflect the loss of our podium stars and we are now fully focused on developing our emerging young stars like Chris Adcock, Gabby White and Jenny Wallwork," said chief executive Adrian Christy.

Boxing will receive a net increase of £950,000 based on the recent inclusion of women's disciplines in the Olympics.

Its case was helped by the existing talent pool, with Britain having won 18 medals in seven international tournaments in 2008-09, including a women's European champion in the shape of Natasha Jonas.

But the British Amateur Boxing Association claimed it would have to revise its programme in the run-up to London after receiving just over half the funding they had been planning for.

"We haven't got what we require to implement our programme fully," said BABA chairman Derek Mapp.

"We had originally bid for £1.8m for the women's programme. We are not trying to be greedy, we are just trying to be pragmatic. This will mean a cut in either the women's or men's programme."

British Handball have been awarded an extra £1.44m which will allow them continue their programme up to the London Olympics and into 2013.

When they were awarded the same amount back in February to cover the 2009-2013 funding cycle, British Handball decided to spend the majority of it over the first two years to maintain the development of their squads.

The sport's chief executive Paul Goodwin said: "We took the risky option to take the money that UK Sport granted us a year ago and we rolled that into two years because we just wouldn't have made any progress.

Decisions have been brought forward now that maximise stability without impacting on our medal targets UK Sport chief executive John Steele

"It was a high risk strategy because we really didn't know where future funding was going to come from.

"This new sponsorship deal has enabled this to happen so that is really good news for us."

British Swimming chief executive David Sparkes also welcomed the announcement of the funding figures with water polo another sport to benefit.

"Although we're not getting figures that we planned for, given the fact we're operating within a tight financial environment, I'm confident we can deliver in terms of our performance goals in 2012," he said.

"This investment means we now have the funds available to get the job done right.

"All aquatic sports have clearly made excellent progress this year with impressive results on the international stage and this additional funding will clearly enable us to continue this momentum."

UK Sport chief executive John Steele explained that key decisions on funding had been brought forward to ensure greater certainty of investment, allowing most of the British teams a "clear line of sight" through to 2012.

"These decisions are vital to our overall mission through to London, and represent what we believe to be the best use of the resources available from a performance perspective," he said.

"While future funding can never be guaranteed, especially in such a difficult economic climate, they help to draw a 'line in the sand' around issues of funding and give sports a clear line of sight through to 2012.

"Over the past year it has become clear to UK Sport that key decisions relating to 2012 could not wait until the proposed confirmation at the 'mid cycle review' in Autumn 2010.

"So decisions have been brought forward now that maximise stability without impacting on our medal targets, and we can move into 2010 without the burden of a major mid-cycle review."

The additional funding has also enabled UK Sport to allow for the recent re-introduction of intellectual disability athletes into the Paralympics.

Funding awards:

Archery: £4,408,000 (Previous award £4,496,700): Athletics: 25,073,000 (25,110,900); Badminton: 7,970,600 (8,631,700); Basketball: 8,575,000 (8,751,800); Boxing: 8,970,600 (8,022,300); Canoeing: 15,964,200 (16,289,000); Cycling: 26,390,300 (26,922,700); Diving: 6,523,700 (6,655,300); Equestrian: 13,382,100 (13,651,900); Fencing: 2,519,335 (1,259,746); Gymnastics: 10,125,400 (10,332,100); Handball: 2,896,721 (1,448,327); Hockey: 13,847,400 (14,128,700); Judo: 7,484,100 (7,636,200); Modern Pentathlon: 6,284,800 (6,411,400); Rowing: 26,927,200 (27,470,000); Sailing: 22,926,600 (23,389,800); Shooting: 2,450,866 (1,225,350); Swimming: 25,096,600 (25,606,000); Synchronised Swimming: 3,389,300 (3,457,600); Table Tennis: 1,207,848 (1,207,848); Taekwondo: 4,400,000 (4,488,300); Triathlon: 5,285,200 (5,392,600); Volleyball: 2,718,538 (1,359,203); Volleyball - beach: 789,539 (394,607); Water Polo: 2,902,039 (1,450,895); Weightlifting: 1,360,157 (680,023); Wrestling: 1,435,210 (717,650).

Total: £261,304,353 (£256,588,649)

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