The UK government agency that invests National Lottery and government money into Olympic and Paralympic sport, with its headquarters in Canary Wharf, London.
UK Sport is the UK's high-performance sports agency, funded by the Government and The National Lottery. It leads the country's investment in Olympic and Paralympic sport and works with the national governing bodies of sport. Its remit also covers developing people and programmes in coaching, governance, talent identification and sports science, medicine and technology through the UK Sports Institute, and bidding for and staging major sporting events in the UK. It promotes high standards of governance, sporting conduct, ethics and diversity. Wikipedia describes it as an executive non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
UK Sport's own mission is 'to work in partnership to lead Olympic and Paralympic sport in the UK to world class success'. The body was created on 6 January 1997, succeeding the Sports Council of Great Britain, after Team GB's poor result at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. Its website lists results since London 2012: 196 Olympic and 391 Paralympic medals at Summer Games and 12 Olympic and 19 Paralympic medals at Winter Games since Sochi 2014. It also has a Strategic Plan for 2021 to 2031 and sections on powering positive change and social impact, and on protecting and transforming Olympic and Paralympic sport.
UK Sport's headquarters is at 10 South Colonnade in Canary Wharf, London E14 4PU, according to its own site. Wikipedia lists a London WC1 address, which looks out of date, and gives its staff as about 90, which may also be dated. It works across the whole UK with partners including the British Olympic Association, ParalympicsGB, Sport England, Sport Wales, sportscotland and Sport Northern Ireland. Its recent news items mention bringing the 2027 World Aquatics Swimming World Cup and the 2027 Tour de France routes to the UK.
Its website has pages on people and culture: a directors' team, a board, integrity and safeguarding information, HR policy templates, pregnancy guidance and a complaints and whistleblowing page. It also published a Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan guide with Sport England. These show an organisation that expects the bodies it funds to behave well, and wants to hold itself to the same standards. We did not find a description of its day-to-day working culture, so we do not claim to describe it.
With a small team, UK Sport employs specialists. There are investment and performance advisers who work with national governing bodies, major events managers, people working in coaching and talent development, governance, integrity and safeguarding specialists, policy and communications teams, and finance and corporate staff. If you are interested in sport but see yourself in an office, in policy, events or data, it is a useful organisation to learn about. UK Sport's website has a 'Working at UK Sport' section.
Website: www.uksport.gov.uk
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