The BBC have filed a report on who are the financial winners and losers following the Olympics and hockey is one of the sports spared the knife. Hockey will get £15.5m in the run up to Rio, an increase of £0.5m. Other sports like basketball, handball, table tennis and wrestling have lost all their funding whilst boxing, equestrian and rowing have seen significant increases.
The following is an extract from the BBC website where the full article can be viewed at http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/olympics/19226042
- Target: 1-2 medals
- Achieved: Yes
- Bronze: Women’s team
Heading into the Olympics with both the men’s and women’s teams ranked fourth in the world, the expectation from GB’s hockey coaching staff had always been to reach the semi-finals and see what happened.
That part was successful, though few on the men’s side of things will care to remember the miserable 9-2 drubbing from the Dutch team which followed. The women similarly bowed out in the semis, well beaten by Argentina, but whereas the men lost 3-1 to Australia in their bronze play-off, the women defeated New Zealand for a first Olympic medal in two decades.
That means targets have been met. More broadly, a bigger battle is now beginning for British hockey: attracting more people into the sport. Initiatives such as Back To Hockey have been running for years but the organisation knows the period immediately after a home Olympics, especially with a medal-winning team, is the most vital to its future.
“I am relieved,” said chief executive Sally Munday after the women won bronze. “It is just so important for the whole hockey family. This is payback, not just for those immediately involved, but for the hockey clubs and everyone involved in the sport. The country has really got behind us and become emotionally involved with us.”
