In reply to alx:
Hi,
Will try to answer your question in two parts. Apologies for the all the incoming acronyms and lengthy explanations but welcome to the world of public funding!
The previous funding for climbing in the Tokyo Olympics was allocated under a 'Medal Support Plan' (MSP) which targeted a specific athlete with medal potential; in Climbing's case that was Shauna. The plan was formed and implemented by the English Institute of Sport (EIS) in partnership with the BMC. Since the disruption of the global pandemic, this fund has been extended to support Shauna through to the Games in 21 which was a part of this annoucement. This funding never went straight to the climber, but was allocated from UK Sport to a project managed by the EIS and supported by the BMC to deliver a plan for Shauna.
The new set of funding for Paris sets climbing out for 'Progression Funding' which is investment in teams and athletes for podium within 12 years. This is pretty different to the funding stream above where funding was based on the assumption of Shauna medalling in (initially) 2 years when the MSP was set up. The Progression fund is an interesting new step by UK Sport as a 12 year plan will cross UK Election and Olympic timeframes with the aim of identifying emerging talent and guiding them from junior all the way to senior (and hopefully podium).
As a slight side note - If you look at UK Government funding policies, most sit within an electoral term so a Minister/Party can deliver a party manifesto pledge so if this plan is implemented across multiple terms then it is really quite something so hats off to UK Sport for committing to this.
This funding is being allocated to GB Climbing (the competition arm of the BMC) and the full details will be worked out between them and UK Sport, but to answer your question - it is likely it will be allocated to them in this instance as the purpose of the fund is to build the infrastructure that will enable the sport as a whole to move up the UK Sport food chain in the future to become Podium Potential or Podium funding recipients which will have much more short term funding targets (i.e. winning medals).
What that infrastructure is and how it will all look in the short/medium and long term will be decided by GB Climbing and UK Sport.
Hope this helps.
