The new model, due to come into effect in April 2021, will be used to fund sports for the 2024 and 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris and Los Angeles respectively.

It represents a softening of UK Sport's tough "no-compromise" policy - placing heavy emphasis on medal success at Olympic Games - and has been the driving force behind elevating Britain into one of the most successful Olympic and Paralympic teams since its launch following a disappointing performance at Atlanta 1996.

Then, Britain finished 36th in the overall medals table with only one gold.

The advent of Lottery funding, however, saw Britain finish 10th at Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004, fourth at Beijing 2008 and third at London 2012.

They then finished second at Rio 2016 with a total of 67 medals, including 27 gold, surpassing Britain's overall medal tally at its home Olympics four years earlier.

The approach has attracted criticism, however, especially from national governing bodies of sports which have failed to hit their medal targets and, as a result, have had their funding cut.

There has also been criticism that it excludes sports such as basketball, in which Britain are not competitive internationally, but which is popular with youngsters, especially those from disadvantaged and minority backgrounds. 

The new strategy has been created following an independent public consultation and a series of evidence sessions with key stakeholders organised by London-based consultants Future Thinking. 

There will be three tiers of funding channelling investment into different stages of the performance pathway to enable the pursuit of medals but also reaching deeper to develop the next generation of athletes and allowing more sports to benefit from funding. 

The organisation invests around £100 million ($133 million/€114 million) of National Lottery and Government money into high-performance sport each year.

They are currently negotiating with the Government about how much funding they will receive to invest for Paris 2024. 

The funding tiers are podium, an investment to athletes and teams with a realistic chance of an Olympic or Paralympic medal within four years, and podium potential providing funding for athletes and teams with a realistic chance of an Olympic or Paralympic podium position within four to eight years.

The newest level of funding will be called "progression" and enable athletes and sports in the early stages of development and which, UK Sport claim, will provide a greater chance of succeeding at the Games over a longer time frame.

"As an investor of significant public funds, it is right UK Sport should ask the general public whether we should continue aiming to inspire the nation through medal success and whether we could change our focus in any way," Dame Katherine Grainger, herself a five-time Olympic medallist, including gold at London 2012, said here today.

"The findings have allowed us to create an exciting blueprint for the future of Olympic and Paralympic sport in the UK and put the athlete at the heart of everything we do.

"We are confident the new strategy will help sustain medal success while enabling more communities to be inspired by the power of high performance sport."

A key target of UK Sport is to use Britain's success to help inspire the next generation of athletes and encourage more people to take up sport. 

"The athletes want to see all their effort and success have more impact on society generally," Dame Katherine said. 

The new model has been launched after the independent Public Consultation revealed that 61 per cent of people agreed the current medal winning strategy is the right approach to investment in Olympic and Paralympic sport in the UK, with only 10 per cent disagreeing.

The consultation was open from June to August 2018 and 4,923 people submitted responses.

UK Sport chief executive chief executive Liz Nicholl denied the new approach marked a lowering of standards.

"Every system has to change," she said.

"A natural part of progress of any high-performance system is that it is never satisfied."