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Thursday 27 January 2005

Auditor Slams Britain's Performance in 2004 Olympics

The National Audit Office (NAO) has issued a report, that states that Britain failed to get full "value for money" from the £83M spent on training athletes for the Athens Olympics.



The report says that UK Sport needs to do more in the run up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, it notes that Britain underperformed when compared to targets set by UK Sport.



Specifically, UK Sport expected Britain to finish between 8th and 10th in the medal table; Britain finished 10th. It predicted 39 medals; Britain won 28.



Six targeted sports; gymnastics, judo, triathlon, shooting, taekwondo and weightlifting failed to win any medals at all.



The solution, according to the auditors, is for the funding on underachievers to be cut.



It is expected that the task of raising money for the 2008 Olympics will be more challenging, than for the 2004 Olympics; people don't back losers!



UK Sport CEO, Liz Nicholl, said:



"Athens represented the end of the first full Olympic cycle in which we have benefited from lottery funding and as such there was always going to be a lot to learn - both from what we did well and things we could have done better."



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