A "last-ditch appeal has been made" to U.K. PM Theresa May to make up a £30M ($37.5M) shortfall in funding for Britain’s Olympic and Paralympic sport before the 2020 Tokyo Games, according to Martyn Ziegler of the LONDON TIMES. A "decline in sales of National Lottery tickets has led to the expected shortfall" in the money that UK Sport will be able to distribute to elite sport -- about 8.5% of the £350M handed out before Rio 2016 -- "leading to fears that it may affect Team GB’s medal haul in Tokyo." UK Sport will "announce funding for individual sports" a week from Thursday and "it is understood that -- after an appeal to the Treasury to make up the shortfall was rejected" -- the organization has approached May directly, pointing out the "unprecedented success that the British teams enjoyed in Rio," where it finished second in the Olympic and Paralympic medal tables. UK Sport Chair Rod Carr said, "If we don't get a solution before next Wednesday from government the reality is that, yes, we are going to have to make some hard decisions" (LONDON TIMES, 11/30).
