Great Britain’s sole medal in boxing at the Olympics cost over £12 million in funding from UK Sport, with cycling topping the list as the most expensive sport as well as being the most successful.
Lewis Richardson was the only boxer out of the six competing at the Games to end up on the podium, winning a bronze medal in the men’s welterweight. Boxing’s future ahead of the next Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 2028 is currently under threat, with the sport not listed on the schedule given the International Olympic Committee’s ongoing dispute with the International Boxing Association.
Team GB finished with 65 medals in Paris, well within their target of 50 to 70 medals, with each medal averaging out at a cost of £3,782,118, after UK Sport invested £245,837,685 during the Paris Olympic cycle funded by the government and National Lottery income.
Cycling ranked as the sport to receive the highest investment, costing £29.3 million, with Great Britain winning 11 medals including gold for Tim Pidcock in the men’s cross-country while there was also gold in the velodrome in the women’s team sprint, meaning a cost of £2.7 million per medal.
Rowing (£23.8 million), sailing (£22.8 million) and athletics (£22.8 million) completed the top four sports to receive the most funding, with rowing producing eight medals (three golds), while there were two medals in the sailing (including gold for Ellie Aldridge) and 10 medals in the athletics topped by Keely Hodgkinson’s 800m triumph.
Those outcomes meant that Great Britain’s two sailing medals cost £11.4 million each, compared with £2.98 million for rowing and £2.23 million for athletics. The third highest sport after boxing and sailing for cost per medal was taekwondo, after Caden Cunningham’s silver medal in the men’s +80 kg, which cost £8.3 million.
The sport with the highest investment which failed to produce any medals was hockey, with both Great Britain teams going out at the quarter-final stage after the men lost on penalties to India and the women were knocked out by eventual winners, Netherlands. Judo (£6.4 million) and modern pentathlon (£5.7 million) were the next highest sports to not win a medal in Paris.
Tommy Fleetwood’s silver medal meanwhile came at no cost to UK Sport, given golf does not receive any Olympic funding.