Innovation Blog
Innovation at the Olympics
As the Olympics get underway in London, those of us old enough to remember the Atlanta games in 1996, where Team GB won a solitary gold medal, have cause to thank an unlikely innovation – the National Lottery.
While the lottery in itself could hardly be described as innovative, as many countries around the world already had one, the effect it has had on elite British sport has been truly revolutionary. In four Olympic Games before Lottery funding Team GB finished between 11th and 36th in the medal table, whereas in the four subsequent Games it will be between 3rd and 10th.
Throughout recent history it has been shown that systematic preparation of elite athletes breeds success on a scale that can’t be matched by the haphazard combination of talented athlete, visionary coach and generous benefactors that characterized UK athletics for so long. Even allowing for the issue of performance enhancing drugs, the systems of the USSR, East Germany, China, the US collegiate system and even the Cuban amateur boxing system all consistently outperformed other approaches at their peak and the challenge of creating something similar for Britain was what the Lottery attempted to achieve.
Using the money generated by the Lottery to fund British Cycling, the Amateur Swimming Association, UK Athletics, British Gymnastics and a host of other governing bodies, Britain now has access to the best coaches, psychologists, nutritionists, etc and is regularly competing successfully on the world stage.
So in 20 years Team GB has gone from turning up to Olympic Games hoping for the best to being capable of being the “best of the rest” behind China & the US. The message is that innovation can often be found in the most unlikely of places, in this case an innovative use of a very well established tool like a national lottery.
By Brian Carrington, July 2012
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