Here's a message from Peter Hart, Chief Executive who is urging those who are passionate about orienteering to get the sport's voice heard in the consultation for elite funding.

British Orienteering welcomes the continued investment in British sport and welcomes the review.

As you may be aware, under the current UK Sport investment policy orienteering receives no funding to support its performance programmes and the talent funding is likely to cease in March 2021.

Since UK Sport’s policy decision, British Orienteering has not received any funding from UK Sport.  This has had a knock-on effect in that our athletes cannot access any support services such as medical or sports science support.  In addition, other agencies such as Sport England and Sports Aid Foundation follow UK Sport’s lead and do not fund non-Olympic sports/athletes in performance activities.

We believe that the current system should and could be used to support a wider range of sports to ensure that people are inspired by elite athletes and these athletes are able to fulfil their full potential beyond those of just the Olympic funded sports. This would reflect UK Sport’s core responsibility as set out in its Royal Charter:

“to use Government and National Lottery funding for “the achievement of excellence” by athletes or teams representing the United Kingdom in sport.”

Representing Great Britain in sport is for many is the pinnacle for athletes no matter what sport it is and should be recognised as such. We believe that all International Olympic Committee (IOC) recognised sports such as orienteering should have:

• A ‘core level’ of support to enable them to send and support athletes at major tournaments
• All international athletes should have free access to basic levels of medical and mental health support/services.

It is the responsibility of UK Sport to ensure that our athletes representing Great Britain are supported to achieve their full potential, that a system of development opportunities should be there for all and recognise that athletes from all sports have the potential to inspire others, as Megan Keith and Matthew Fellbaum have recently done at the European Youth and Junior World Championships respectively – this should not be limited to just Olympic and Paralympic sports.

We need to encourage UK Sport (and Sport England) and those who hold the purse strings, that all IOC recognised sports should receive a ‘core level’ of support.

I request members to make your voice heard by responding to the UK Sport’s Consultation.

The consultation is open until the 19^th August

Individuals can respond via the UK Sport Website.