Adam Peaty – ‘I couldn’t become Olympic champion without funding’

Olympic champion Adam Peaty today said more should be done to help lower-income families gain access to funding for high-performance sport.

Many Olympic athletes in the UK rely on money from APA (athlete performance awards) funding, which is supported both by the National Lottery and the exchequer.

In a digital, culture, media and sport committee hearing on the future investment of national lottery funding, Peaty explained the current model doesn’t adequately support lower-income families.

Peaty told the committee: “It’s solely on performance and your potential performance. But it doesn’t take into consideration how much your parents earn, how much wealth they have”.

The three-time Olympic gold medalist said he would have been unable to do the sport without the necessary funding earlier on in his career.

“if I didn’t get that [funding], I physically wouldn’t be able to do the sport. I wouldn’t have been able to do it. No way. Absolutely no way.