INTERVIEW
ROD CARR
The newly appointed chair of UK Sport talks to Sports Management about coaching, inspiring children and the ambitious target set for Team GB – to go to Rio in 2016 and improve on the amazing performance at London 2012
Tom Walker • managing ediTor • sporTs managemenT I
t’s a year since Team GB enjoyed its most successful Olympic Games ever. Competing in 26 sports at London 2012, British athletes won
65 medals (29 golds), securing third place in the overall medal table. The team’s performances on the track, the pool and around the arenas played a crucial role in delivering a great Games and giving the entire nation a much-needed boost. The effects of this “Olympic expe-
rience” can still be felt in both the national mood and the UK economy; while sports clubs and leisure centres up and down the country have registered increases in participation and members, restaurants, hotels and pubs too have benefitted from Britons rekindling their love affair with all things British. Despite the phenomenal success
of the Games, however, there has been no Olympic hangover at UK Sport – the elite performance body responsible for funding the Team GB athletes. The record-breaking medal haul from London 2012 is not an end result, but rather an interim goal and the organ- isation’s plan is for Team GB athletes to go even faster, high- er and stronger at Rio 2016.
CHANGE OF GUARD
The end of London 2012 saw a changing of the guard at the top of UK Sport. The organisation’s chair, Sue Campbell, stepped down after serving the maximum term of eight
Rod Carr has a long history of success within the Olympic arena
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years and was replaced by Rod Carr. While Campbell came into the job in 2003 after a career in academia, Carr has a mightily impressive track record on the frontline of high performance sport. A veteran of eight Olympic Games,
Carr is widely credited with developing the Royal Yachting Association (RYA) from an under-achieving organisation into one which has delivered one of Great Britain’s most successful Olym- pic programmes. At the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, he was deputy chef de mission for the entire Team GB. Carr took up his role at UK Sport in
June 2013 and wasted little time in set- ting out his stall. He describes the task ahead as clear but difficult. “On paper we have a very simple goal – but in practice one that will be very hard to achieve,” says Carr. “We want to be the first nation in the history of the Olym- pic and Paralympic Games to improve its medal haul after hosting the Games.” This means that Team GB is expected
to bring back more than 65 medals from the 2016 Rio Olympics – and another 120 from the Paralympic Games. Carr says that the motives for doing this are clear. “Why do we think improving on the 2012 performance is a good idea? We think it’s a good idea for its own sake. The nation gets a great deal of joy, com- fort and general sense of wellbeing from seeing people with the Union flag on them going well in the Olympics, as was proven last year. It massively boosts the nation’s morale.” It is not just the mental state of Britons
that is improved by a good performance at the Olympics. While the drive to
Issue 2 2013 © cybertrek 2013
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