The Government announced in January that they were searching for two new chairs with UK Sport chair Sue Campbell and Sport England chair Richard Lewis both due to vacate their roles this month.

The Government have now shortlisted candidates for the role, with Baroness Tanni seemingly the leading contender for one of the two positions, one of which will oversee UK Sport, responsible for funding Britain's elite athletes, and the other Sport England, which oversees National Lottery funding to grassroots sports.

The 43-year-old from Cardiff is one of Britain's most recognisable Paralympic athletes having won 11 gold medals at the Games in a glittering career.

She was created a Life Peer in the House of Lords in March 2010 and also sits on the Board of the London Legacy Development Cooperation.

Baroness Tanni admits she is not yet 100 per cent sure which of the two roles she would prefer but that she has applied so that she can further contribute to sport.

"I applied because sport is still a huge part of what I do," Baroness Tanni said here at the 2013 Laureus World Sports Awards, which are due to take place tonight.

"My life in retirement has changed quite a lot and, actually, the biggest part of what I do now is House of Lords and its politics.

"But sport is still there.

"We have to do something really good for the legacy of the Games.

"We can sit round talking about legacy for the next 10 years but somebody's got to do something.

"The attraction for Sport England, for me, is that there is some amazing stuff you can do for women in sport.

"The amount of money Sport England has to spend is significant and can bring huge changes.

"But the elite side, that's where I spent 25 years of my life going round in circles – literally.

"So that has an attraction as well.

"At the end of the Paralympics, I thought, 'That's me and sport done'.

"But I'm probably not quite done with sport yet."

Outgoing UK Sport chair Campbell, who is also here to attend the Laureus Awards, refused to be drawn on picking her favourite candidate but was full of praise for Baroness Tanni and said it would be nice to see a woman succeed her.


"I'm not a great one for saying that the new chair should be a woman or shouldn't be a woman but I think there are some good women out there and I think it would be terrific if one of those got one of the two appointment [for UK Sport or Sport England chair] or if both are women," said Campbell.

"I think at UK Sport we are in a terrific place so I think whoever comes in there has some time to grow and build and take it on.

"I'm just really passionate that it is someone who cares about sport and if you are talking about Tanni, she is a wonderful role model, a terrific spokeswoman and has got a mind of her own.

"I don't know what her chances are, but she would do a terrific job."

It is also understood that Warner has applied for the role of UK Sport chair, having been UK Athletics chairman since 2007.

Warner, who is also International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Athletics sport technical committee chairman, helped London win its bid the 2017 International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Championships in 2011 before helping the city secure the IPC 2017 World Championships at the end of last year.

Another of the figure involved is London Marathon chief executive Nick Bitel, who has put his name forward for the role of Sport England chair.

Bitel already serves of the Board of Sport England.

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