Memorandum submitted to the Scottish Affairs
Committee by the British Olympic Association
The British Olympic Association ("BOA")
welcomes the decision of the Scottish Affairs Select Committee
to hold an inquiry into the potential benefits for Scotland of
the London 2012 Olympic Games. As the National Olympic Committee
for the United Kingdom, the BOA believes that Scotland will undoubtedly
benefit from the sporting and economic boost that the Games will
give to the whole country.
London 2012 (of which the BOA is one of the
three key stakeholders, with the Government and the Mayor of London)
will take the lead in responding to the Committee's invitation
to comment on the detailed points of your inquiry. However we
thought we would take this opportunity to very briefly touch on
the BOA's role for your benefit.
The BOA is the voice of sport within the London
2012 structure. It is the BOA's priority to ensure that Team GB
delivers its best ever results at the London 2012 Olympic Games
and that a sporting legacy is delivered. Indeed a recent strategic
framework review agreed a new aim for the BOA—namely to
lead the largest and most competitive Team GB to 4th place in
the 2012 medal table whilst developing the Olympic movement in
the UK.
It is important that the United Kingdom continues
to come together to send one team, Team GB, to the Olympic Games,
rather than having separate teams from the Home Nations. There
are two main reasons for this.
First, the International Olympic Committee determines
the basis upon which we should participate. It is the IOC who
has determined that the BOA's jurisdiction is Great Britain and
Northern Ireland. In fact under the Olympic Charter, it is clear
that the IOC will only consider granting National Olympic Committee
status to "an independent state recognised by the international
community". Therefore the BOA is obliged by the IOC to lead
a delegation to the Olympic Games representing the whole of the
United Kingdom.
Secondly, we strongly believe that by being
able to call upon athletes from around the United Kingdom there
is, obviously, a greater pool of talent upon which we can draw
to ensure that we are fielding the best team possible, so enhancing
the United Kingdom's medal winning prospects. The BOA believes
that devolved teams at Olympic level would seriously dilute the
limited funding available and the structure of British sport would
become increasingly fragmented. It would also result in a small
number of collectively qualified athletes and less medals being
won collectively by British athletes a the Olympic Games.
Whilst we are aware that this particular issue
is not one identified in the invitation to make a submission,
we thought it would be opportune to address you briefly on this
issue as it is often raised.
28 September 2005
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