Archery GB has received confirmation of the funding it is to receive from UK Sport to support Performance Archery athletes and programmes for the Paris 2024 Games and beyond.
UK Sport has committed to an indicative four-year award of £4.7m across the Performance Archery programme for the Paris 2024 Games.
This represents an increase in funding for Performance Archery at a time when the country's economy is facing huge pressures as a result of the pandemic. It allows both the Olympic and Paralympic archery programmes to work closer together towards medal success in Paris.
We are not immune to the impact of the pandemic and are grateful for the funding we will receive to support those athletes who will be competing in Paris and onwards to Los Angeles. The sport is in a strong position after a year of successes for both the Olympic and Paralympic teams in 2019 including the women's team winning bronze at the World Archery Championships and Jess Stretton's individual silver at the World Para Archery Championships.
[caption id="attachment_24871" align="alignnone" width="300"] Para archers Nathan Macqueen and Phoebe Pine[/caption]
Our Olympic squad has already won a full quota of places for Tokyo while our Paralympic squad has secured five spots with the chance to add a further five spots to the final selection at international tournaments next year. To continue to receive funding for a sixth successive cycle shows our hard work is being recognised.
The athletes will continue to have access to outstanding support personnel and training environments. Archery GB operates a World Class Programme so our athletes are among the best prepared in the world.
This year has been a challenging one for archery with the global pandemic impacting the ability for people to participate in our sport; however, this news is a good way to end 2020. We will now focus on building back archery in 2021 and developing our Performance Archery athletes as they prepare for Tokyo and then Paris and Los Angeles.
Tom Duggan, Acting Performance Director, said: Â"We have ambitious plans to redefine Performance Archery and build a world class programme and culture that enables athletes and staff to realise their potential at the highest level. This continued support from UK Sport will be critical in helping us to deliver these.”
David Tillotson, Olympic Director, said: Â"We're pleased our efforts and hard work over the last few years have been recognised. We have ambitious targets to redefine Performance Archery. This is an excellent opportunity to pursue and achieve our team's ambitions.”
