In this unit we will consider organisation and funding issues in elite sport. As with public sector sport, at the grass roots level a number of different organisations are involved, and it is difficult to identify clear leadership of this area. The National Lottery has had a major influence on the funding of our top sports people and the approach we take here is to look at how funding and organisation issues impact on one athlete, in this instance Shelly Woods (British wheelchair racing record holder and London Marathon winner). We explore the range of organisations that she interacts with and her funding, which sets the scene for reading the extract in Activity 2.
The video clip in Activity 1 was filmed at Stoke Mandeville Stadium in Buckinghamshire, the stadium that has become known as the ‘birthplace of the Paralympic Games?. Before starting the activity, have a look at Box 1 below to find out a little more about Shelly.
© Shelly Woods
©© Shelly Woods
Figure 1: Shelly Woods4 June 1986
Blackpool
800, 1500 and 5000 metres + marathon
After wanting to be involved in sport after my accident [in 1997, aged 11], I was always an active youngster. I sampled a few sports as a junior including basketball and found pentathlon, then decided to concentrate on my one true passion ? wheelchair racing.
(Source: BWRA, 2008)Except for third party materials and otherwise stated (see terms and conditions), this content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Licence
