Great Britain’s Olympic and Paralympic teams are going to need to harness artificial intelligence and work together more closely in order to continue their success at recent Games, UK Sport chairman Nick Webborn says.
In his first interview since taking up the role, the head of the elite sport funding agency told BBC Sport: “We’ve been a really successful nation, and to maintain that position or to even go higher, we’re going to have to do things differently.
“It’s about how we think smarter now, how we utilise things like AI appropriately in sport, how we work together as different sports bodies, rather than in silos.
“I think we’re now in a frame of mind where we’re united and moving together, that sharing of information between sports is happening much more than ever before.
“And we’re going to need to do that to maintain ourselves in our position on the medal table.”
This year, UK Sport announced British athletes would be offered a new form of AI-based protection from online abuse, and Webborn wants the technology to help with talent ID, injury prevention and remote classification assessments in Paralympic sport.
Team GB’s 65 medals at the last summer Olympics at Paris 2024 equalled their haul at London 2012.
However, their tally of 14 gold medals saw them drop from fourth to seventh place in the medal table, their lowest position for 20 years.
“We want to continue to punch above our weight. We always have done,” says Webborn.
“And it’s those little things, how we convert those silvers into gold, that just push you up that medal table a little bit higher.
“The Paralympic team have been brilliant, they’ve been second in the medal table behind China for the last several Games, but other nations are pushing them. But I believe the character and the innovation that we have in the UK will continue to keep us there.
“The collaboration between Olympic and Paralympic sports has never been better. You can definitely see that in the discussions that they’re having. We’re learning from each other.”
UK Sport has not yet revealed a medal target for the upcoming Winter Games in Milan and Cortina in Italy, but Webborn is optimistic.
“The current group of athletes are having some amazing success in this early season, it’s great to see. That doesn’t always transfer into medals at the Games, but we’re in a really good place,” he says.
