UK Sport planning ahead

UK Sport are so determined to build on the feel-good factor around the London 2012 Olympics they have already started planning for Rio 2016.

The body responsible for elite athlete performance in Britain today claimed the nation are in a better shape than ever to achieve their aim of exceeding the 47 medals they won in Beijing in 2008.

Their fourth-quarter report on Team GB's projected performance for next summer's Olympics showed 23 Olympic and Paralympic summer sports, the highest number to date, have been given an overall 'green' rating, which means they are on track to deliver their medal targets for London.

Countries have often experienced a dip in performance following the euphoria that generally accompanies hosting an Olympics, and UK Sport are keen to start planning ahead to 2016 to make sure that they buck the trend.

"Our ambition for Rio will be to maintain the high of the home Games performance like no other sporting nation has done before," UK Sport chief executive Liz Nicholl said.

"That is a really significant goal that we want to embark on.

"It should excite and challenge people to think beyond London."

Nicholl and UK Sport director of performance Peter Keen have been touring the country to talk to representatives from each sport about their plans for 2016.

Keen points to Australia's performance at the Athens Games four years after hosting the 2000 Sydney Olympics as evidence of the necessity to start planning for Brazil now, rather than after London.

"The Australians dropped about 20% in their medal count from Sydney to Athens," Keen said.

"They waited until after the Games to really sit down and think about what happens next. Our view is that's not the right thing to do.

"It's always in people's minds after a Games, do I go on, do I stay, do I retire? By doing it this way, we will avoid placing a huge emphasis on reviewing at a time when they are tired."

Not everything can be planned for 2016 now, however.

Budgets are based on Government and National Lottery funding remaining at current levels, something which may change given the economic climate.

"That's a part of the unknown," Nicholl said.

"The lottery is unknown. That's in a good place, though. Hopefully the new Health Lottery doesn't detract from the National Lottery because that could have an impact.

"On the Exchequer side, our current agreement with the Government is until 2015 so in arriving at the projections for our planning purposes we are making some assumptions that Exchequer funding will remain as is."

The fourth-quarter report for 2011 issued today made for encouraging reading in terms of Team GB's pursuit of success at London 2012.

The analysis shows 13 summer Olympic sports are currently rated as green, with 15 at amber and none at red.

The most notable sport among the green group is athletics, who are exceeding expectations for the first time since the Beijing Games, where they took home just four medals.

The report has left Nicholl confident Team GB will top their medal haul from Beijing, which was their best since 1908.

She said: "We absolutely believe we are on track for our high-level goal of top four in the Olympic medal table, second in the Paralympic medal table, and (winning) more medals across more sports.

"We take confidence from the number of greens.

"It is more than we have had before so that is telling us we are in a very good place.

"Overall we are in a really good place with 44 World Championship medals in Olympic disciplines this year and 73 in Paralympic disciplines."