UK Sport makes funding available for sports over four-year cycles to coincide with Olympic and Paralympic cycles.
The latest cycle, which runs from 2025-29, will see over £230,000,000 in funding distributed. This will help a variety of sports to achieve the following:
- Support athletes in their pursuit of success at the Olympics, Paralympics or other major competitions
- Help sports become more accessible, and develop sustainable systems of support to help more high-potential athletes emerge
- Ensure athletes with the greatest potential can attend major championship competitions, including those with qualification opportunities for the Games.
This funding is separate from the Athlete Performance Awards (APAs) that are also given out.
As an organisation, UK Sport works closely with the sports to build their case for investment, and then evaluates their submissions based on overall affordability and balance of resources between investment streams.
The funding will also help UK Sport achieve the three core ambitions set out in the 2021-31 Strategic Plan.
Ambition 1: Keep winning and win well
Ambition 2: Grow a thriving sporting system
Ambition 3: Inspire positive change
New Sports for LA 2028
In the list of funded sports, four sports are categorised as New for LA 28. They are:
- Baseball/Softball
- Lacrosse
- Flag Football
- Squash
Historical funding for these four sports has been minimal; only Baseball/Softball among them has received any funding since National Lottery funding began in 1997.
Unsurprisingly, two of these appear in the lowest-funded sports for the 2025-29 cycle from UK Sport, with Lacrosse and Baseball/Softball receiving £700,000 each.
Lowest UK Sport Funding for LA 28
| Rank | Sport | Funding Amount |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Handball | £375,000 |
| 2 | Wrestling | £406,000 |
| 3 | Squash | £500,000 |
| 4 | Flag Football | £500,000 |
| 5 | Volleyball | £675,000 |
Development Sports
Nine sports are listed as Development Sports in the current funding awards by UK Sport. Of the nine, Team GB has never won medals in five of them (underlined below).
- Basketball
- Fencing
- Handball
- Skateboarding
- Sport Climbing
- Surfing
- Table Tennis
- Volleyball
- Wrestling
The most recent medals in any of these sports came in 2024, with Toby Roberts winning Gold in the Men’s Combined Speed Climbing, while Skateboarder Sky Brown won her second Bronze medal in as many games in the Women’s Park event.
In Fencing, Great Britain has won only 10 medals in the sport’s history at the Olympics, dating back to the 1896 Games: nine silvers and a gold. They last won a medal in 1964, as Bill Hoskyns won Silver in the Men’s Individual épée. The solitary gold came in 1964, with Gillian Sheen winning the Women’s Individual Foil in 1956.
Meanwhile, in Wrestling, Team GB has won a total of 17 medals, the last of which was a Bronze in 1984 for Noel Loban in the Men’s Light-Heavyweight Freestyle. However, in more recent times, British representation has faltered, with only four wrestlers qualifying for the Games since 1988.
World Class Programmes
The remaining 22 sports are all classified as World Class Programmes and range in funding: from £2,800,000 million for Archery, all the way up to Cycling’s £30,125,000 – almost 12% of the total UK Sport funding for the 2025-29 cycle.
Highest UK Sport Funding for LA 28
| Rank | Sport | Funding Amount |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cycling | £30,125,000 |
| 2 | Aquatics | £28,750,000 |
| 3 | Rowing | £24,850,000 |
| 4 | Sailing | £23,950,000 |
| 5 | Athletics | £20,450,000 |
In 2024, these five sports accounted for over two-thirds of Great Britain’s medals (43/65) and over half of its gold medals (8/14).
- Cycling: 11 medals incl. 2 Golds
- Athletics: 10 medals incl. 1 Gold
- Rowing: 8 medals incl. 3 Golds
- Sailing: 2 medals incl. 1 Gold
- Aquatics: 11 medals incl. 1 Gold (includes Diving + Artistic Swimming medals)
The funding also reflects the number of competitors participating. These five sports contributed 59% of all Team GB athletes in 2024 (195/327)
Athletics may be the fifth-largest, but it has received a reduction of more than £1.7 million in funding. The only other sport to receive less funding than the 2021-24 cycle is Canoeing (-£531k)