[holding answer 9 October 2008]: The Government and UK Sport are providing significant exchequer and lottery funding to Olympic and Paralympic sports through the World Class Performance programme. This funding supports podium level athletes with medal winning capabilities at 2012, development level athletes with medal winning prospects at future Olympic and Paralympic games, and the identification of athletes who have the potential to become podium and development level athletes.
In addition, UK Sport, in partnership with the English Institute of Sport and Paralympics GB, has developed a number of specific talent identification and development programmes for 2012, including Pitch2Podium, for example, which aims to recruit released academy footballers onto fast track Olympic development programmes.