Funding cuts for four British Paralympics sports, eight Olympics sports

From AFP:

LONDON — British teams in eight Olympics sports had their funding slashed on Thursday, raising fears that the host nation will be unable to field a team in every sport at the 2012 London Olympics.

Four Paralympics sports also had their funding cut for the 2012 Games due to a budget shortfall of 50 million pounds.

The allocation for shooting -- a sport in which Britain performed poorly at the Beijing Olympics -- suffered a severe cut of 3.8 million pounds, forcing the team to be slimmed down from 46 funded athletes to around 10.

Water polo was hit with a 50-percent reduction to 1.45 million pounds, sparking warnings that the British team, who are far below world-class standards, may miss out on a rare chance to participate in an Olympics in 2012.

"It's pretty bleak. We think the absolute cheapest you could do it on would be about 2.5 million pounds," water polo performance director Nick Hume told the BBC.

"We've got some tough decisions to make but we'll not rush into them, and we'll explore every possible avenue."

Last month funding agency UK Sport increased its financial support to many Olympic sports, including the successful cycling team which won 14 medals in Beijing last year.
But the funding gap for more minor sports arose after a government campaign failed to raise any money from the private sector struggling with the effects of the global recession.

Sue Campbell, the head of UK Sport, said: "It was vital that, having successfully targeted our medal prospects, we also maximised the chances of every sport for London 2012 within our limited resources."