Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sport Minutes of Evidence


Memorandum submitted by the British Olympic Association (BOA)

  The British Olympic Association (BOA) is the National Olympic Committee (NOC) for Great Britain and Northern Ireland. It was formed in 1905 in the House of Commons, and at that time consisted of seven National Governing Body members. The BOA now includes as its members the 35 National Governing Bodies of each Olympic sport.

  The BOA is one of 205 NOCs currently recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The IOC's role is to lead the promotion of Olympism in accordance with the Olympic Charter. The Charter details the philosophy, aims and traditions of the Olympic Movement. The IOC co-opts and elects its members from among such persons as it considers qualified. Members of the IOC are its representatives in their respective countries and not delegates of their countries within the IOC.

  The BOA's role is to prepare and lead Britain's finest athletes at the summer, winter and youth Olympic Games. In Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the BOA is responsible for the development and protection of the Olympic Movement, whose vision is to contribute to building a peaceful and better world by educating youth through sport. The BOA provides services to its membership including the delivery of extensive elite level support services to Britain's Olympic athletes and their National Governing Bodies throughout each Olympic cycle to assist them in their preparations for, and performances at the Games. These services are delivered in parallel to those provided by the Government and the BOA works closely with the Minister for Sport to ensure that both provide services to the Olympic Governing Bodies which are complementary and not overlapping.

  The BOA receives no government or lottery funding and is completely dependent upon commercial sponsorship and fundraising income. The impartiality this grants the BOA means that it can speak freely as a strong independent voice for British Olympic sport. This freedom and the independence of sports federations, both international and domestic are enshrined in the Olympic Charter and the BOA places a high priority on the autonomy of sport.

  Great Britain is one of only five countries which have always been represented at the summer Olympic Games since 1896. Great Britain, France and Switzerland are the only countries also to have been present at all Olympic Winter Games. Great Britain has also played host to two Olympic Games in London: in 1908 and 1948. In 2005, London was selected as the host city for the 2012 Olympic Games.

  As a result of London hosting the Games in 2012, the BOA's commercial rights have been sold to the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (LOCOG), to ensure LOCOG can generate the revenue required to stage the Games. As such, the BOA cannot raise funds through traditional sponsorship channels as it had done previously and must now increase its fundraising activity in order to make up the short fall generated by the additional cost of undertaking the range of activities as a host nation National Olympic Committee (NOC).

  As outlined above, the BOA aims to maximise Team GB performances at every Olympic Games by providing services to governing bodies and their athletes throughout the four year Olympic cycle. Notably, the BOA has always made it a priority to create an exclusive training environment within a designated Preparation Camp during the critical 2-3 weeks prior to the Games, allowing Team GB athletes to prepare and acclimatise before entering the Olympic Village. The BOA also provides athlete, coaching and management training so that every competitor feels well-prepared to deal with the unique Olympic environment. Every aspect of Team GB's preparation is planned meticulously by the BOA to ensure British athletes are given a world-leading chance of success.

  The BOA operates various programmes which meet the needs of Team GB athletes. These include an employment network (OPEN) which helps athletes find careers and an extensive benefit scheme (Olympic Passport Scheme) offering amongst other promotions, access to national and local sports centres. Central to the BOA's provision of training and preparation services is the British Olympic Training Centre (OTC), set in the alpine village of Lofer, Austria. The OTC allows British athletes, coaches and support staff to train using world class specialist facilities for a range of both winter and summer sports. Providing a "home-from-home" for many athletes, the OTC has played a large part in Team GB's success at the previous two Olympic Winter Games.

  Aiming to maximise the performance and minimise the time lost due to injury, the BOA operates the Olympic Medical Institute (OMI), offering world class medical support to Team GB athletes—whenever they need it. The OMI's highly experienced, multi-disciplinary team provides both short-term and on-going support to athletes in areas such as residential rehabilitation, outpatient sports medicine and physiotherapy services, squad-based sports physiology and cutting edge research developments. The BOA's "athlete medical schemes" also provide comprehensive medical cover for over 1,500 existing and potential Team GB athletes.

  Six days after London was awarded the 2012 Olympic Games during a conference called by the BOA, British Sport agreed to set an aspirational target for Team GB to finish in fourth place in the 2012 medal table. The BOA has had a succession of outstanding performance personnel, Sir Clive Woodward being the current Director of Elite Performance who is taking forward the brief to analyse the ways in which the organisation could continue to strengthen its services to the Olympic governing bodies and their athletes in order to help reach the 2012 target. After a year's research, the result has been the development of an "Elite Performance Programme" which places the athlete and coach at the centre of a support network made up of leading specialists from areas including kinesiology, physiology, nutrition and performance analysis. A unique communication and analysis system will ensure the athlete receives 24/7 support from the network.

  A trial on an amateur women's golfer has allowed the BOA time to experiment and fine-tune the concept before offering it to the Olympic sports. A pilot programme has begun with British Judo and the BOA envisages around 30 athletes being involved in the lead-up to 2012. The Programme will be made available to all Olympic sports as a supplement and complement to their existing World Class Performance Programmes. The decision on which athletes are involved will be taken by the BOA and each Olympic sport's Performance Director and ratified through UK Sport's "Mission 2012" monitoring process. Clive is a member of the Olympic Expert Panel for "Mission 2012."

  The programme is being offered as another service the BOA delivers to the Olympic governing bodies and has the full support of the Government and its elite sport agencies.

  The Elite Performance Programme is centred on world-leading specialists and a level of attention to individual athletes which is unique throughout the world. As such, the Programme will require significant resources which the BOA will seek from corporate partners. The Programme is not dependent on either government or lottery funding. The BOA is in discussion with various commercial partners and is confident that their interest that the resource requirements will be met.

  The BOA believes that the addition of this latest iteration of its Elite Performance Programme to the existing services it offers Britain's Olympic sports will ensure Team GB has the best chance of succeeding at London 2012 and beyond. To monitor the performances of Britain's athletes in the lead-up to 2012, the BOA produces an annual update entitled: Countdown to 2012 which ranks Team GB in a "relative Olympic medal table" for that year. Copies of the publication from the previous two years have been enclosed with this submission.

  For the BOA, finishing in fourth place in 2012 will not be the only marker of a successful Olympic Games. The true legacy of the London Games will be the development of world class Olympic governing bodies. In this context the BOA developed an initiative which partners FTSE companies with the National Governing Bodies of Olympic sports to help improve the effectiveness of their business delivery and performance. Each FTSE company involved with the project provides skills and knowledge transfer (as opposed to offering financial sponsorship) to a particular sport in order to accelerate their organisational development, and each company benefits through internal staff development and motivation.

  The FTSE-BOA initiative, a further service to our membership, has delivered significant results with ten governing bodies benefiting from valuable partnerships with some of the world's leading business minds (further partnerships are due to be announced in the near future). The BOA believes that sporting organisations should be fully equipped with good governance, transparency and in-house expertise in order to protect the autonomy of sport. Sport is built on the work of volunteers and those coaches, clubs, governing bodies and international federations who protect and promote their interests. The BOA believes that autonomous governing bodies are best placed to run their own sports and will continue to provide services, assist, represent and support them to ensure their independence and freedom to deliver elite performance is protected and strengthened.

  In its wider role as the host nation NOC, the BOA plays a full part in the preparation for the Olympic Games in London 2012; both through its membership as one of the four members of the Olympic Board and through its Board representation on LOCOG and the many related committees on which it serves. The BOA seeks proactively to ensure the promulgation of Olympism and Olympic ideals throughout the United Kingdom. It believes the delivery of a fully funded Olympic sports legacy policy which focuses on a substantial increase in the opportunity for everyone to participate in sport and recreation is a critical component of the delivery of the London 2012 Olympic Project.

November 2007





 
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