Representatives of 11 currently unfunded Olympic sports met with Dame Katherine Grainger, the new Chair of UK Sport.

The sports were archery, badminton, baseball/softball, basketball, fencing, handball, table tennis, volleyball, weightlifting, wrestling and wheelchair rugby.

Wrestling was represented by Jem Lawson, Chair, who was given an opportunity to describe the difficulties faced by the sport but emphasised that wrestling was still striving, under these difficulties, to develop a talent into performance programme and provide opportunities for athletes to achieve their Olympic dreams.

Badminton England issued a statement following the meeting reproduced below:
“We are delighted to have opened the dialogue with Dame Katherine Grainger and were very appreciative of the time she gave us.

“The meeting gave Dame Katherine the opportunity to learn the various positions of all sports and she showed great empathy to the challenges we face.

“While recognising the significant funding challenges across British sport, we firmly believe that it is possible for UK Sport to demonstrate that Every Sport Matters by not only building on the extraordinary successes of London 2012 and Rio 2016 but by supporting all Olympic and Paralympic sports to develop its current and future medal potential.

“Various scenarios were discussed as to how this might be possible and both UK Sport and the 11 sports have committed to continuing to discuss a range of options which we hope might start to be considered as early as October as part of the Annual Investment Review.

“We know that there is not an easy fix given the various policy positions, however, waiting until post Tokyo to consider change, risks a decimation of the talent and performance environments of so many sports.

“We were pleased that Dame Katherine recognised this risk and are strongly encouraged with the firm commitment she gave to work with us to seek potential solutions.
“Today’s meeting was a very healthy discussion and we look forward to these continuing.”

Further discussions are scheduled in the coming weeks.

• 29th Aug Daily Telegraph: Heads of 11 sports to meet Katherine Grainger in bid to reverse cut
• 30th Aug Daily Telegraph: Katherine Grainger vows to consider ending GB’s ‘no compromise’ Olympic funding formula
• Statement from Badminton England
• 29th Aug BBC Sport item: Badminton funding: Will world bronze convince UK Sport to invest again?
• 30th Aug BBC Sport item: Olympic and Paralympic funding: Sports ‘positive’ after meeting with UK Sport