Hopefully you enjoyed my previous post on Team GB and their medal success at Tokyo. I thought this lead nicely into a blog about the £ cost of it all.
Apologies if you are feeling drowned in spreadsheets and numbers after this, I am an Accountant after all. This blog is focused on the money spent and basing the success or otherwise purely on medals. Later in the blog I will also discuss my take on ways that we can maximise our medal total by spending our money wisely. This again doesn’t look to factor in any of the other objectives there may be. Increased participation, the profile of the sport in question etc.
Here is a table showing the spend at each of the Olympics from Sydney through to Paris 2024.
| Paris – Syd | Tokyo – Syd | |||||||||
| Sport | Total | Total | Paris | Tokyo | Rio | London | Beijing | Athens | Sydney | |
| Archery | 14.23 | 12.10 | 2.13 | 1.12 | 2.95 | 4.40 | 2.83 | 0.80 | 0.00 | |
| Athletics | 145.64 | 123.47 | 22.17 | 23.00 | 26.82 | 25.14 | 26.51 | 11.40 | 10.60 | |
| Badminton | 26.00 | 22.85 | 3.15 | 0.94 | 5.73 | 7.43 | 8.75 | 0.00 | 0.00 | |
| Boxing | 51.78 | 40.39 | 11.39 | 12.08 | 13.76 | 9.55 | 5.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | |
| Canoeing | 87.57 | 75.37 | 12.20 | 16.34 | 20.04 | 16.17 | 13.62 | 4.70 | 4.50 | |
| Cycling | 144.59 | 116.99 | 27.60 | 24.55 | 30.26 | 26.03 | 22.15 | 8.60 | 5.40 | |
| Diving | 37.84 | 29.38 | 8.46 | 7.22 | 7.46 | 6.53 | 5.87 | 1.40 | 0.90 | |
| Equestrian | 74.12 | 63.04 | 11.08 | 12.54 | 17.99 | 13.39 | 11.72 | 4.40 | 3.00 | |
| Gymnastics | 70.32 | 57.81 | 12.51 | 13.40 | 14.61 | 10.77 | 9.03 | 4.10 | 5.90 | |
| Hockey | 66.30 | 53.93 | 12.37 | 12.90 | 16.14 | 15.01 | 9.88 | 0.00 | 0.00 | |
| Judo | 41.79 | 36.35 | 5.44 | 6.56 | 7.36 | 7.49 | 6.94 | 4.10 | 3.90 | |
| Karate | 0.63 | 0.63 | 0.00 | 0.63 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | |
| Modern Pentathlon | 32.15 | 27.76 | 4.39 | 5.49 | 6.97 | 6.28 | 5.92 | 2.00 | 1.10 | |
| Rowing | 153.00 | 130.79 | 22.21 | 24.65 | 32.62 | 27.28 | 26.04 | 10.60 | 9.60 | |
| Sailing | 127.00 | 105.67 | 21.33 | 22.24 | 25.50 | 22.94 | 22.29 | 7.60 | 5.10 | |
| Shooting | 24.66 | 18.86 | 5.80 | 6.00 | 3.95 | 2.46 | 5.05 | 1.40 | 0.00 | |
| Sport Climbing | 0.77 | 0.77 | 0.00 | 0.77 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | |
| Swimming | 115.20 | 98.61 | 16.59 | 18.73 | 20.79 | 25.14 | 20.65 | 6.40 | 6.90 | |
| Taekwondo | 32.73 | 24.96 | 7.77 | 8.22 | 8.05 | 4.83 | 2.66 | 0.60 | 0.60 | |
| Triathlon | 35.69 | 28.89 | 6.80 | 7.04 | 7.45 | 5.29 | 5.11 | 2.60 | 1.40 | |
| 1282.01 | 1068.62 | 213.39 | 224.42 | 268.45 | 236.13 | 210.02 | 70.70 | 58.90 |
First thing to note is that the cost from Sydney to Tokyo has been over £1 billion. That is a chuck of change. This funding is the World Class Programme funding from UK Sport. I made a freedom of information request and they very kindly came back with a split of where the Tokyo funding went which was as follows:
| Summer World Class Programme/Medal Support Plan | |
| Coaching | 15.0% |
| Domestic Training | 4.5% |
| International Training | 5.0% |
| International Competition | 12.5% |
| Equipment (Capital) | 3.0% |
| APA & PL | 1.5% |
| Sport Science | 8.0% |
| Sport Medicine | 8.0% |
| Admin & Logistics | 6.5% |
| Senior Leadership Team | 12.0% |
| Elite Training Centre | 5.5% |
| Overheads | 8.5% |
| Team Qualification | 0.5% |
| People Development | 2.0% |
| Research, Innovation & Technical | 3.0% |
| Talent ID, Selection & Confirmation | 4.5% |
| 100.0% |
Note that this doesn’t include what are termed Athlete Performance Awards (APA’s) which are the payments to the athletes to sustain themselves and allow them to train full time. In addition to the £224m spent on the World Class programme for Tokyo there was around £42m given to Athletes in this Olympic cycle. The amounts of these awards reflect your medal winning prospects and are as follows:
| Grade | £ – Annually |
| A | 28,000 |
| B | 21,500 |
| C | 15,000 |
| D | 11,500 |
| E | 9,000 |
| F | 6,500 |
Here then are the costs of the medals won at Tokyo
| Sport | Tokyo Medals | Tokyo Golds | £m per Medal | £m per Gold |
| Boxing | 6 | 2 | 2.01 | 6.04 |
| Cycling | 12 | 6 | 2.05 | 4.09 |
| Swimming | 8 | 4 | 2.34 | 4.68 |
| Triathlon | 3 | 1 | 2.35 | 7.04 |
| Diving | 3 | 1 | 2.41 | 7.22 |
| Equestrian | 5 | 2 | 2.51 | 6.27 |
| Taekwondo | 3 | 0 | 2.74 | N/A |
| Modern Pentathlon | 2 | 2 | 2.75 | 2.75 |
| Athletics | 6 | 0 | 3.83 | N/A |
| Sailing | 5 | 3 | 4.45 | 7.41 |
| Gymnastics | 3 | 1 | 4.47 | 13.40 |
| Shooting | 1 | 0 | 6.00 | N/A |
| Judo | 1 | 0 | 6.56 | N/A |
| Canoeing | 2 | 0 | 8.17 | N/A |
| Rowing | 2 | 0 | 12.33 | N/A |
| Hockey | 1 | 0 | 12.90 | N/A |
| Archery | 0 | 0 | N/A | N/A |
| Badminton | 0 | 0 | N/A | N/A |
| Karate | 0 | 0 | N/A | N/A |
| Sport Climbing | 0 | 0 | N/A | N/A |
| 63 | 22 | 3.56 | 10.20 |
In addition we had a Bronze in both Weightlifting and Skateboarding which received no funding in this Olympics cycle. So about £10m a Gold or just over £3.5m per medal. I have sorted those by event and so you can see that Boxing and Swimming deliver the most bang for your buck in terms of medals. Whilst 2 out of 2 Golds for Modern Pentathlon meant those Golds came at a cost of just £2.75m each.
Tokyo is just one Olympics though. In terms of over/under performing sports and value for your investment it makes more sense to look over the 6 Olympic cycles from Sydney to Tokyo and these figures are below.
| Sport | Sydney – Tokyo Medals | Sydney – Tokyo Gold | Total | £m per Medal | £m per Gold |
| Archery | 1 | 0 | 12.10 | 12.10 | N/A |
| Athletics | 37 | 12 | 123.47 | 3.34 | 10.29 |
| Badminton | 3 | 0 | 22.85 | 7.62 | N/A |
| Boxing | 19 | 8 | 40.39 | 2.13 | 5.05 |
| Canoeing | 18 | 5 | 75.37 | 4.19 | 15.07 |
| Cycling | 58 | 31 | 116.99 | 2.02 | 3.77 |
| Diving | 8 | 2 | 29.38 | 3.67 | 14.69 |
| Equestrian | 19 | 8 | 63.04 | 3.32 | 7.88 |
| Gymnastics | 15 | 3 | 57.81 | 3.85 | 19.27 |
| Hockey | 3 | 1 | 53.93 | 17.98 | 53.93 |
| Judo | 5 | 0 | 36.35 | 7.27 | N/A |
| Karate | 0 | 0 | 0.63 | N/A | N/A |
| Modern Pentathlon | 7 | 3 | 27.76 | 3.97 | 9.25 |
| Rowing | 29 | 12 | 130.79 | 4.51 | 10.90 |
| Sailing | 29 | 15 | 105.67 | 3.64 | 7.04 |
| Shooting | 6 | 2 | 18.86 | 3.14 | 9.43 |
| Sport Climbing | 0 | 0 | 0.77 | N/A | N/A |
| Swimming | 25 | 7 | 98.61 | 3.94 | 14.09 |
| Taekwondo | 9 | 2 | 24.96 | 2.77 | 12.48 |
| Triathlon | 8 | 3 | 28.89 | 3.61 | 9.63 |
| 299 | 114 | 1068.62 | 3.57 | 9.37 |
Again there were some other sports which didn’t receive funding for Tokyo and they have won us the following medals
| Sport | Total | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
| Skateboarding | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Weightlifting | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Rugby Sevens | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Tennis | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| Golf | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 7 | 3 | 2 | 2 | |
Add that lot together and you come back to the 306 medals including 117 Golds that Team GB have won from Sydney in 2000 through to Tokyo 2020. Again over the long run similar costs to Tokyo. £3.5m per Medal and just under £9.5m per Gold. Behind those averages though there are some huge disparities. The biggest one for me and this will be revisited in my tips for maximising medals is Hockey. A sport with only two possible Golds each Olympics. The Men’s and the Women’s Team. With Nearly £13m spent in the Tokyo cycle that is £6.5m per Gold best case.
The Reality has been that Hockey have received nearly £54m over the 6 Olympics and actually didn’t receive funding for Sydney and Athens so that is only over 4 Olympics cycles. 1 Gold and 2 Bronzes and that comes in at an average £54m per Gold or £18m per medal. Far and away the most expensive medals from all of the GB Sports.
Archery is another that stands out with no Golds won and just a solitary Bronze back in Athens to show for the £12m invested.
Whilst as you might expect with GB domination of the Track cycling. We have brought home 58 Medals including 31 Golds. They may have received £117m in funding but at just over £2m per medal and under £4m per Gold that is outstanding value.
Now you may say I am stating the obvious but here are my 6 Tips for GB to maximise their medal count
Target Sports with a larger number of Golds Available
See I told you they were obvious. A lot of the Olympics sports only have 2 Golds available. Men’s and Women’s be that Water Polo, Handball, Golf or our friend Hockey. Far too few eggs in a little fragile basket. There are 13 sports that have at least 10 Golds available.
Athletics, Swimming, Judo, Shooting, Weightlifting, Gymnastics Artistic, Rowing, Boxing, Wrestling, Canoe Sprint, Cycling Track, Fencing and Sailing. GB already have a lot of success in some of these. Other tips that I will come to shortly show that not all of these sports are appropriate to target even if the number of Golds available is high.
GB History in the Event
Past performance is not an indicator of future performance. GB Rowing in Tokyo can attest to that. But it is a pretty decent indicator most of the time. Why change a winning formula. Keep funding heavily those sports who perform cycle after cycle. Another example going the other way is Gymnastics, with GB having very little history in this sport but we have suddenly started to find real success. From the trail blazers of Beth Tweddle and Louis Smith who acted as role models and something to aspire to for the successful Gymnasts who have followed.
Avoid where other Countries dominate
Where another country dominates. Just steer clear. Keep your money in your pocket or look for somewhere better to invest. Sports with 5 or more possible Golds but where countries have won 60% plus of the Golds at Tokyo were as follows.
- China – Diving – 7 of 8 – 87.5%
- South Korea – Archery – 4 of 5 – 80%
- China – Table Tennis – 4 of 5 – 80%
- Japan – Judo – 9 of 15 – 60%
Multiple Medal Opportunities for Individual Athletes
Find yourself a multi event medalist and medals can come thick and fast. There are 33 Summer Olympics athletes who have won 10 or more medals. Of these 13 were Gymnasts and 12 were Swimmers. Looking into this Michael Phelps numbers are obscene. 23 Gold – 3 Silver- 2 Bronze and a total of 28. Won across 8 different events in the pool when there were only 16 events open to him.
It is on a smaller scale but the inclusion of mixed relay in Triathlon gave GB another medal for their athletes to aim at. In a similar way that the mixed relay in the pool helped Adam Peaty to add another Gold to his 100m Breaststroke title. Duncan Scott managed to come home with 4 medals from Tokyo. It is these kind of athletes we need to find and then throw resources at. Be that equipment, staff or support. What ever is needed to bring these athletes to the games in peak condition to be successful.
Target Sports with ‘Easier’ Medals
This one is a little negative and really focuses around Bronze, and what we really desire is Gold, but it still needs to be said. Boxing if you lose your semi-final you automatically get Bronze. You may have taken a beating, you may be unable to fight again, fighter welfare. In almost all other sports you have to finish third or play off to win your Bronze. The martial arts and wrestling all have similar doubling ups in the Bronze department. In Taekwondo you can lose but depending on how your opponent performs you can be given a second chance to medal in the Repechage. It’s around the fringes, but in this world of marginal gains it is something to consider.
Number of Athletes who can compete in an event
This is a hard one to get data on easily. But in terms of the big two events in terms of profile and number of Golds available you have Athletics and Swimming. In the individual events if you have sufficient athletes of the right calibre you can enter 3 people in Athletics and 2 people in Swim events. Jamaica did the 1-2-3 in the Women’s 100m whilst GB did 1-2 in the pool in the Men’s 200m Freestyle. If you can focus your resources here you must get some economies of scale, plus you have the added benefit of each athlete pushing the rest of the group on. In terms of 100m this also puts you in a very strong position for the relay.
There you have it a run through the costs of winning medals at the Olympics. These aren’t just medals in a table, but real people, following their dreams to be at an Olympics and not just to be there, but to be at the sharp end, competing to be on the podium. I play the lottery in the faint hope that I win the jackpot, but in the meantime I enjoy knowing that I play a small part in helping these men and women live their Olympic dreams.
Simon's Sports Blog 