British athletics is experiencing a 'year for the ages' according to Sebastian Coe. The president of World Athletics was in London in July to see Josh Kerr break the 27-year-old mile world record – a mark that Lord Coe set three times during his own career – while this summer features a pair of home championships, the recent Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and the upcoming European Championships in Birmingham.
Keely Hodgkinson to Shine in Birmingham
Keely Hodgkinson, the Olympic champion over 800m, will be one of the main attractions in the latter event, where GB will be looking to come away with a hatful of medals. And for Lord Coe, there is no question that Britain's competitiveness on the international scene is in large part down to The National Lottery, launched in 1994.
It has provided nearly £1.8 billion in funding to elite sport in the UK via UKSport in more than 30 years since, a game-changing investment according to Lord Coe.
He said: “It really is a year for the ages for British athletics. We have a European Championships, a Commonwealth Games, a World Under-20 Championships, where we have a very strong British team, and then the Ultimate Championships at the end of the year, which I'm sure will showcase a number of British athletes.
National Lottery's Impact on Performance
“The point I'd make is that all that is done in large part because of the National Lottery. Let's be absolutely blunt about it. In 1996, two years after The National Lottery was created but with no impact, we had the poorest performance we have had at an Olympic Games, we only had one gold medal (overall), we didn't have a single gold medal in track and field that year. We were 36th on the medal table.
“You could then suddenly plot the journey: 2000, a big improvement, 2004 another significant improvement, 2008 in Beijing off the graph, I think we finished fourth on the medals table, then London. Then I was chair of the British Olympic Association between 2012 and 2016, and I'm really pleased that I retired on our biggest medal haul in Rio.
“The National Lottery and consistent levels of funding, there is no coincidence, if you have the funding, you will get the performances. It's been a game changer.”
Coe's Role in Lottery's Creation
The impact of The National Lottery is particularly resonant for Lord Coe, who had swapped the track for politics at the time of its introduction. In fact, he was one of the key figures in getting the original bill through parliament.
He added: “I'm very proud of it. It was an interesting journey for me because my first committee role as an MP was to sit on the National Lottery Bill Committee, so I was one of the government members on the committee and it was the arm wrestle around the shareholder agreement.
“It was that committee that delivered the vision that John Major set and I genuinely believe that his legacy of creating The National Lottery and the life-changing elements of that lottery for communities the length and breadth of the country is one of the strongest legacies any peacetime Prime Minister can point to.”
The funding continues to have a huge impact on British sport to this day, and as the continent's best athletes descend on the Alexander Stadium in Birmingham, its effects will be vital for home athletes looking to impress.
