Olympic update

The Daily Sail gets the latest news from the RYA's Olympic Manager Stephen Park

When The Daily Sail catches up with him Stephen Park is on his way back from the Belfry where he has been hobnobbing it with the Minister for Sport at a mass gathering of sports coaches. (There must be a word for that?) Whether it is the contined group euphoria, because he enjoys his job or simply the success of his Olympic troupe this season, Park, a highly motivated Scot known mostly as 'Sparky', is on a high.

"If you look at the world rankings – we have people in the top five in eight of them. We won 15 medals this year at World Championship and pre-Olympic championship – that’s more than we’ve ever done before" he enthuses. "It is such a great time to be involved in British sailing with the America’s Cup programme coming back in. Maybe that didn’t go as well as we would have all loved it to, but it’s fantastic they’re back in the arena and it’s a huge programme.

"And Ellen with her success in the Route du Rhum and the other Offshore Challenges projects going well and Tracy about to announce a sponsor for the Jules Verne. With Maiden holding the 24 hour speed record. With the Olympic program and having won more medals and been more successful this year than we ever have in the past. With the number of sailors taking part in junior and youth championships higher now than it ever has ever been in the past – it has doubled in the last 24 months."

Twice the number of people taking part in junior and youth championship is one hell of an achievement and is partly attributed to money from the Lottery, the RYA's high performance managers, but also the new found profile of yachting within the media thanks specifically, in opinion of The Daily Sail, to Ellen MacArthur.

Of some concern in Olympic circles is the fall in the amount of money being generated by their cash line, the National Lottery. Operator of the lottery, Camelot plc recently announced that in the 26 weeks leading up to 28 September lottery sales fell by 5.2% (albeit down to a mere £2,276 million). But it has been predicted that this downturn could have significant knock-on effects on Olympic funding, including sailing.

"In financial terms we haven’t [felt the effects of this yet] but the time that we would will be at the beginning of financial year in April," says Parks. "There is a suggestion that some of the funding through the youth program, the World Class Potential program, that there could well be a reduction in the finances available in that programme."

However to make up for this short fall last week Tessa Jowell, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, announced a £14.2 million increasing in Exchequer funding for UK sport.

Jowell also said that the government was going to go ahead with a proposal to increasing the living expenses for Olympic hopefuls.

Olympians are ranked A, B and C, 'A's being the top league. "Currently the Cs get less money than the As and Bs in terms of living costs and there was the Cunningham Report, in October last year, suggesting that the living costs of the Cs needed to be brought in line with the As and Bs," explains Park. "And the problem has been meeting the funding requirement to do that, because it costs a lot of money to increase that money. And Tessa Jowell in the same announcement said the government were going to meet that financial short fall. So on that side it is quite good. And they did confirm, that despite concerns to the contrary, the government would honour its commitment following the Sydney games to ensure that there would be a minumum of £25 million per year coming into World Class Performance sport."

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