The London Olympics have got off lightly in these new austere times. A cut of £27 million from the Olympic Development Authority’s construction of Olympic venues is a barely noticeable trim in the first round of budget cuts. More so when the total ODA budget is over the £7 billion mark, and the reality is the ODA looks like coming under its budget anyway. The real pain is to be felt at UK Sport – the government’s elite funding body – which has been enormously successful in focusing and demanding excellence from sports in return for their share of public cash.
Less than five per cent of monies received by UK Sport is spent on administration. So a cut of three per cent – despite the body’s pledge that sport won’t suffer could be relatively brutal.
Then there is Sport England, which has already intimated that athletes in lesser sports lower down the talent pool might be affected. Ouch. The families of those athletes already dig deep to fuel Olympic dreams.
It could be argued that in one fell swoop the Government has signalled that glossy stadiums and facilities might count for athletic performances, and also more than getting people active.
This is a nonsense of course. Behind the scenes the powerbrokers are fearful of an Olympic security nightmare and they are stockpiling any savings from the construction to boost the £600 million set aside for security. No one wants a Games that is not secure, but it is a shame that it looks like the fringe athletes in the first instan