As exclusively revealed by insidethegames last week, Carr (pictured top) will lead the organisation for the four years leading up to the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games after it invested a record £355 million ($542 million/€415 million) of National Lottery and Government funding into Britain's athletes in the hope of winning more medals than at London 2012.

"Having worked in the British sporting system and with UK Sport for many years, I feel honoured to be entrusted with leading this high performing organisation into the Rio cycle," Carr said.

"Our job is to ensure our Olympic and Paralympic athletes are best placed to keep delivering those magical moments that we all enjoyed last summer, to inspire the next generation for many years to come.

"The ambitious goal to win more medals in Rio will be our toughest challenge yet, but I'm confident that we can deliver."


Carr, a UK Sport Board member for the past 10 years, has performed a number of senior roles with the British sailing team at the Los Angeles 1984, Seoul 1988, Barcelona 1992 and Atlanta 1996 Olympic Games, and then served as Deputy Chef de Mission for the entire Team GB at Sydney 2000.

He then acted as a panel member for UK Sport's Mission 2012 performance monitoring process, offering guidance and expertise across all sports, which helped produce the medal hauls by Team GB and ParalympicsGB at last summer's Games.

Over the past year Carr also contributed to evaluation panels for "Project Rio", which helped inform UK Sport's investment allocations for Olympic and Paralympic sports in the Rio cycle.

Carr will be paid £40,000 ($61,000/€47,000) per year for working an average of two days a week.

"The appointment of Rod Carr as Chair of UK Sport is fantastic news for the high performance community," UK Sport chief executive Liz Nicholl said.

"Rod has excellent credentials; having led one of our most successful world class programmes he knows exactly what it takes for sports and athletes to reach and remain at the top of their game for a prolonged period of time.

"Rod is respected by our Board members and staff for his contribution and commitment over the last 10 years as a UK Sport Board member.

"He will be a fantastic leader for the organisation as we look to use the platform created by London 2012 to develop a stronger more sustainable high performance system.

"I'd like to take this opportunity, on behalf of UK Sport, our partners and the athletes we've supported, to publically thank our outgoing chair Baroness Sue Campbell for her outstanding leadership over the past 10 years.

"Sue played a pivotal role in ensuring the success of our athletes last summer and securing the fantastic position we are now in, with the support of Government and The National Lottery, to aim for an even better performance in Rio."


Carr will take up the post with immediate effect, after Baroness Sue stepped down following her maximum two terms of service in post.

She said she was "genuinely delighted with the appointment" of Carr as the new chair of the organisation.

"I have every confidence in Rod to lead UK Sport to scale new heights in the next Olympic and Paralympic cycle," Baroness Sue explained.

Britain's Sports Minister Hugh Robertson said the Government had "a very strong field of applications" for the position and that Carr had been appointed for his "wealth of experience in elite sport".

Carr added: "I look forward to working with our partners, particularly the four home country sports councils, to ensure we are better aligned than ever before, to continue to develop British sport and the system supporting our athletes, which is already highly regarded around the world."

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