Increase in funding for grassroots Wrestling
Funding settlements for the period 2013-17 have been announced by Sport England and UK Sport.
Sport England has announced its largest ever investment in Wrestling with £850,000 being invested over the next four years to support the grassroots sport and talent development.
Wrestling is a small sport, focused on a small number of clubs many of which are in deprived communities. The investment will help British Wrestling to take forward its plans to continue developing the sport by:
Where Olympian meets legacy…
- Training more coaches and officials to improve people’s experience of the sport
- Introducing an athlete award system, similar to the belt system used by judo
- Developing the club and competition infrastructure and improving links with schools.
Just over £160,000 of the investment will be used by the sport to develop a structured talent programme with a national talent squad, underpinned by three regional academies.
Sport England’s Director of Sport, Lisa O’Keefe said: “We believe that investing in the development of small sports such as Wrestling will help us create a diverse sporting legacy from this summer’s inspirational Olympic and Paralympic Games.”
Wrestling’s Chief Executive Colin Nicholson said: “The sport of Wrestling is immensely grateful to Sport England for the faith they have shown in the development of Wrestling, and their recognition of the hard work that has been put in over the past four years by the National Governing Body and Wrestling volunteers across the country – recognised with this generous increase in funding. It is fantastic news and we will deliver for them and our sport!”
UK Sport have also announced their Olympic medal-funding decisions. They have chosen to cease Wrestling funding based on the need for further rigorous proof of Wrestling athletes’ medal-winning potential. Following the “this is not a no-never” decision by UK Sport, Colin Nicholson said “Wrestling will work with UK Sport to provide further acceptable evidence of our athletes’ podium potential in preparation for the next available review point.”
England funding in support of Wrestling at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow will be decided during the first quarter of 2013.
