91Èȱ¬

Should athletes expect sponsorship? Every pound that we spend sponsoring atheletes could have been spent on the NHS, schools, OAP's etc. So presumably those who allocate the funds think athletics more important than those other things (and everything else). Is it? Isn't it silly that top sports people can become super rich from playing games many of play for fun? There is something very perverse about the way we (and others) run our lives.

If the fringe sports are finding life difficult now it will be nothing to the pain felt after the first spending review of whichever party/ies come to power after the Election.

The fact is, many of the people at the top of their sports don't earn great deals from doing it. £15,000 isn't a great deal of money when the cost of equipment, travel and competing is taken into account.
It's hard to raise money for these minority sports as there is no coverage in the general news. If some of the British team's results were mentioned at the end of the sports reports on the news, rather than interviews and speculation about something connected to Football/Rugby/Cricket, then perhaps these athletes would find it easier to get funding from the private sector. Until this happens though, they will either find it very tough, or have to rely on government help. However, as previous posters have said - this will always be the first pot of cash to be cut to reduce public spending. As a fencer (this link came through from British Fencing), this is a shame as success (and more importantly REPORTED SUCCESS) is the only way to boost numbers and take funding away from the government coffers. Therefore it's very much a catch-22 situation.

Hello Adrian, really good article despite it's obvious negative side- safe to say that it's never nice to see a top-athlete with so much potential having to get funding the hard way.
I've been fencing myself for around nine years, and while I'm not a world class fencer (I don't delude myself!) I do hear a fair bit about the cost and lengths some of our top fencers have to go to, and I do wonder sometimes why Premier League footballers and the like don't donate money they clearly can spare to minority sports (not just fencing).
I am a football fan, but I do hate the fact that footballers get paid obscene ammounts of money that they spend on flash cars, diamond rings that could make good catapult boulders or boking a posh hotel room that the wife doesn't know about but the other girl does. Not that writing on here will get footballers to make an effort to promote and support grassroot 'minority' sports, but I do wish footballers had the brains to do more and better things with their excessive wage bill than spoil themselves on the lifestyle.
As for 2016 and the funding for fencers and other athletes looking to get a chance to compete there, all I'll say is that when I read that question on 2016 in your article the words that came to my head were "Oh yeah, forget about Rio 2016"- I hope the people at UK Sport adn British Fencing are not so forgetful.
Channel 4 (sorry to mention them!) did a Path to 2012 tv programme last year that covered a fair ammount of minority sports, does the 91Èȱ¬ have similar plans to introduce minority sports to audiences in the run up to 2012?

I think it's fair that we have to focus funding on athletes with medal potential. I know that means some people will miss out but that's life I'm afraid - there isn't a bottomless pit of money.

If the likes of Fencing & Handball were getting the same or more funding than sports like rowing & cycling then Adrian would probably write a blog saying 'Why Isn't Funding Focused on Winning Medals?'

Adrian, to your comment number 6. You say that minor sports will benefit from the coverage for the 2012 Olympics. This may be true to some extent, but, for the 2008 Olympics I went on the 91Èȱ¬ website to check TV times. Under sports there were 28 sports, but under TV times there were only 27 - the one sport which had no coverage (apart from a 30 second interview in the 'day's round up') was fencing.
I really hope that in 2012 there are no sports without any live coverage at all.

US fencer Tim Morehouse recently wrote about the similar situation in the US for competitors in the non-marque sports.

Good article Adrian.

Fencing is a fantastic sport. I started it at the beginning of the year and it's done me so much good. It is a sport of honour and discipline. You salute competitor and judge before you fight and if you reach 4-4 in a first to 5, you salute again. It contains many values todays youth could do with learning for the benefit of us all - as do many other sports. It should all be funded.

As for money going into the NHS - how about we cut their obesity management budget and put it into sport. Telling people to 'exercise more' and giving them an advice book on healthy food isn't that hard. People today need to learn more willpower and decent values, and not expect other people to make them thin.

Fencing has a very posh/middle-class image, but I can honestly say at the club I fenced at in London and the one I do now in the Midlands, no-one there is posh or really even middle-class, they are all normal working people from all works of life.

Less money to footy and more to minority sports please. Oh and more awareness of the UK's fantastic sailing record! The UK rules the waves and yet no-one knows about it. Again it's seen as a 'posh' sport, yet I am working class and sailed for 9 years and now fence! Go figure!

The other fencer highlighted on the 91Èȱ¬ fencing page, Rhys Melia (20) from Birmingham, is also unfunded - he was told this was due to funding cuts imposed earlier this year by UK Sport and a "no compromise" approach to selection.

Despite this disappointment, he has worked as a volunteer coach to promote his sport in Birmingham and provide access to fencing for hundreds of local school children; the money generated by this gained him enough funds to attend 2 international competitions.

At the second in Portugal he beat the World number 10 (Getz USA) to achieve a Last 16 result and qualify for the European Championships where he came 20th beating a three times World Champion (Joppich GER) to get there. He was the second best placed GB fencer in the individual event and has now qualified for the World Championships in Paris but as an unfunded fencer, (ranked 4th in the UK, and winner at last weekend's Essex Open,where he easily beat a funded fencer in the final ) his chances of success are severely limited if he is unable to train at an appropriate level.

His results have earned him an invite to London to train with the funded squad but without the means to travel or stay overnight this is a meaningless gesture. Rhys is working now to earn enough money to hopefully travel to Germany in October where he can prepare for Paris at a fully equipped Olympic fencing centre for less cost than a stay near the Lansdowne club in London where the funded GB team train.

Is top level sport only for the rich or favoured? If not, then why are we unable to identify natural talent and develop it for long term good? GB has plenty of fencers capable of achieving results internationally, what they need is effective support and a fair selection system that is open and transparent.