Post-2012 funding to rely on Lottery

The Olympics minister, Hugh Robertson, has promised there will be no drop in funding for elite athletes after the London 2012 Games.

Australian Olympic officials have blamed their slide down the medals table after a high point at the 2000 Sydney Games – in Beijing they finished sixth, two places below Britain – on cuts in funding. Although direct Government funding is also being cut in Britain post-2012, Robertson said that an increase in Lottery money would replace that and guarantee £111m annually – the same level as Olympic sports receive now – in the run-up to the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro.