It was a time when sport, the arts, and other good causes didn’t benefit directly from the members of the public buying their weekly lottery tickets.  

It was a world where the vast majority of British athletes competing for their country were in debt: plunging heavily into large overdrafts, working through the day, squeezing training around the edges. It is unrecognisable from how most Olympic and Paralympic sports are now set up and perhaps it’s not a surprise that then we weren’t excelling in many areas on the sporting world stage.  

The same passions, commitment, desire and ambition burned in the hearts of athletes but competitive equipment, world-leading facilities, expert coaching, top level medical and scientific back up were just distant dreams. 

Performances were of course celebrated and the pride of competing for Team GB was strong, but success was limited and in 1996 the British team finished 36^th on the Olympic medal table in Atlanta with one gold medal.

Admittedly there are countless sporting stories of inspiration derived from displays of human tenacity, courage and spirit that do not finish on a medal podium.  For my money those stories can be equally as memorable and as relevant as any that have shiny-medal endings.  Human beings who take on challenges, who risk, who try, who dare greatly will always resonate.  We now, however, have more than stories of brave attempts.  There are many athletes who follow their passion and achieve everything they’ve ever dreamed of and more.  We also have bold athletes who take on the challenge, may not achieve their dreams but may achieve something equally valuable whilst in the pursuit of excellence.    

All of these examples have their place and sport has an incredibly capacity to inspire and to teach universal lessons.

What the UK National Lottery has created, and the subsequent investment into high performance sport enabled, is more and more young people - and some of us not so young - to have a shot of achieving our ambitions.  Of fulfilling opportunities.  Of realising dreams forged in gyms, clubs, tracks, pitches and pools up and down the country.  

The investment in high performance success has created household names of athletes and produced inspiring leaders and role models across countless sports from a variety of backgrounds, all with their own unique story to tell. 

One of the privileges of being an international athlete is the chance to travel to schools and clubs and speak to people about their own hopes and ambitions. Time and time again we hear stories of a flame being lit, a spark being ignited, a future being forged because of witnessing a moment of sporting inspiration.  

That inspiration often then shows itself not only in sport, but it may be in art, in science, in media, in drama, in education, in language.  There is no limit on where that inspiration can lead.  It is the power of human performance, the moment of elevation beyond what is thought possible, that inspires. 

But for sport to have this position of influence and inspiration, it needs also to have integrity. 

I believe sport, and the people working within it, should be held to a very high standard.  If we are honest, sport hasn’t and doesn’t always meet those standards.  Sometimes that failure is wilful and nefarious; sometimes it is careless and casual.  All of us working in the area should be tireless in the ambition to keep sport where it should be. Yes, high performance sport will be tough, challenging, frustrating, exhausting, heart-breaking, ruthless. I was an athlete for 20 years and I know how demanding that lifestyle is.  

But there should still be respect, openness, honesty in the face of hard truths.  There should be space for voices to be aired and listened to.  Where we see standards fall below what we believe they could be, then we all have a responsibility to make the changes necessary to push them back up to where they should be.  The drive to excel does not need to be harmful or hurtful or shameful. 

I consider myself very lucky that when I finished competing as an athlete I had the opportunity to continue to work in sport.  As the chair of UK Sport I am probably aware of more of the challenges facing sport than ever before.  But then, I am also in a great position to be able to play a role in trying to make things better.  The ongoing demands of funding, of welfare, of governance, and other issues demand good answers.  The aim is that as hard as sport is tested, the stronger the response and the better the system is for that original test.  

It’s an ambitious aim but just as the responsibility of an athlete is always to strive for improvements, then so must be the responsibility of the people working behind the scenes in sport constantly to strive for healthy growth and progress. In the UK the National lottery has given us a lot, but the money on its own isn’t enough to guarantee success or a healthy environment. 

Between the athletes and coaches, the support staff and administrators, the investors and decision-makers we combine to forge a positive aspirational world that new generations of athletes want to be part of and add their own chapter to.

Those new athletes happily keep coming and keep raising the bar of achievement.  I was thrilled to have the opportunity to go to Pyeongchang recently and watch the Winter Olympics.  The events were suitably spectacular and it was great to experience once again the thrill of live competition and the joy of sport.  Team GB brought back more medals than ever before and in the skeleton event we had three podium finishes across the men’s and women’s competition.  

I caught up with Laura Deas, bronze medalist, when she returned to the University of Bath and she told of being encouraged to try the sport by her mum who saw a talent ID campaign run by UK Sport. 

Laura didn’t know if she would be suited to a different sport that she knew little about, but was willing to go along to the testing and find out.  A few years on and with a thank you to her mum, Laura is now an Olympic medalist and has become an Olympic inspiration herself to a new wave of talent who may want to put themselves forward for the current talent ID campaign, ‘Discover Your Gold,’ looking for future potential Olympic and Paralympic athletes. 

People can find inspiration and become inspirations in so many different ways.  It feels inherent in us as a species.  If in any doubt just look at any of the recent obituaries or life stories of Stephen Hawking.  A man who defied expectations whilst opening up a whole new world of possibilities.  Human beings will always push limits and boundaries and that’s why in the most positive way we discover new universes, find medical breakthroughs, explore new technologies, and pioneer new forms of transport, communication and exploration.  

Sport plays its own part when limits are pushed, ambitions expanded and dreams realised.  Who knows where the adventure will take us next.