Sports Management Issue 1 2012 - Leisure Opportunities

INTERVIEW
The CEO of UK Sport talks
to Karen Maxwell about
the organisation’s role in
improving performance
and providing quality
support in the lead up
to the London 2012 Games
LIZ NICHOLL
T
his is it – 2012 – the year we’ve
all been waiting and preparing
for. The athletes, the coaches,
the volunteers, the event
organisers and suppliers – in fact everyone
involved with British sport is poised
to make the most out of this ‘once-ina-lifetime’
opportunity.
So my obvious question to Liz Nicholl
OBE, the CEO of UK Sport – the nation’s
high performance sports agency that’s
investing £100m a year to ensure our athletes’
success – is: “Are we ready”
“It’s going to be a real test of our investment,
but yes we’re definitely on
track,” she says. “Every sport has agreed
a key performance indicator in every year
on its journey through to the Games and
Alistair Brownlee is 2009/2011
World Triathlon Champion
if we look at the collective performances
in 2011, we’re in a better place than we
were prior to Beijing 2008.”
Four years ago, TeamGB reached the
goal set for London 2012 by achieving
fourth place in the Olympic and second
place in the Paralympic medal tables.
With less than 150 days before the London
Games begin, our high performance
sport system is prospering – with a record
23 Olympic and Paralympic sports achieving
their targets – thanks to record levels
of targeted investment.
“We aim to win more medals across
Olympic and Paralympic sports this year –
bearing in mind that we won 47 medals
across Olympic sports in Beijing and we’re
currently in a good place,” Nicholl says.
However, she warns that there are no
guarantees in performance sport. “The
athletes are doing well, the coaches are
committed, the support teams are committed
– so really now it’s a matter of
continuing to work hard between now
and the Games and not getting complacent.
It’s not easy, our athletes are
competing with the world’s best, although
many of ours are also the world’s best. If
everything goes according to plan we’ll
keep that fourth and second position.”
OVERSEEING EXCELLENCE
A former international netball player and
championship director of the 1995 World
Championships, Nicholl was CEO of England
Netball before joining UK Sport in
1999. She started out as director of elite
sport before progressing to COO in 2009,
then took the CEO reins from John Steele
– when he left the organisation to join the
Rugby Football Union – in 2010. (Steele has
since moved to the Youth Sport Trust.)
During her time at England Netball,
Nicholl was credited with steering the
sport through a period of successful
change, while also holding the roles of
vice chair of the CCPR – now the Sport
and Recreation Alliance (SRA) – and chair
of the Commonwealth Games England.
Looking back, she’s quick to point out
that it was thanks to a huge team effort.
“We all had clear objectives to increase
participation in netball, improve performance
and provide quality support – and
this is still the case today,” Nicholl explains.
“We introduced a world-class performance
programme, we accessed lottery
funding, we recruited a performance director
from overseas and the year before
I left there was a bronze medal at the
Commonwealth Games. Today, England’s
still up there at number three in the
world and vying for second place, potentially
first at some point in the future.”
FUNDING FACTS
At UK Sport, Nicholl has overseen a similar
model to raise the standards set for
other sports to achieve success at World,
Olympic and Paralympic level, by steering
key changes in the performance, investment
and governance of the organisation.
She says the same team work ethos and
the “significant contribution from every
individual” – particularly with reference
to the creation and implementation of UK
Sport’s world-class performance system –
was vital to its success.
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Issue 1 2012 © cybertrek 2012