ABSTRACT
The purpose of the proposed chapter is to provide an original contribution to this topic by examining how British Fencing, a smaller British national governing body of sport (NGB), might be dependent on partnerships, networks, and funding to support athletes during their careers and preparing for retirement. UK Sport is the lead funding organisation for high-performance sport in the United Kingdom. Moving closer to the 2020 Tokyo Olympiad, the ‘No Compromise Funding Approach’ has resulted in the withdrawal of public funding from a number of British NGB’s (e.g. British Fencing and Badminton England). Thus, several athletes enlisted onto these NGB’s World Class Performance Programmes could have little choice but to lose support services due to a lack of continued investment. The chapter will, therefore, specifically appraise the networks and partnerships these smaller NGBs create with other institutions like the English Institute of Sport. The specific focus is on the partnerships formed to provide support services to athletes.
