The latest assessment by Mission 2012 shows that in the build up to London 2012, nine Olympic and five Paralympic sports are registered as overall "green" on the Mission 2012 Tracker Board, with 17 and 12 "amber" respectively.

 

Only two sports – handball and sitting volleyball – have a ‘red’ rating that suggests significant change is required if performance is to be maximised ahead of the home Games.

 

For handball in particular, this is specifically related to the challenges faced as a result of having their funding cut by UK Sport for London 2012.

 

Handball’s Mission 2012 submission also highlighted the key issue of facilities with a lack of suitable training and competitive venues hampering its progress.

 

John Steele, UK Sport’s chief executive, said: “By the end of the month there will be only three years to go until the London Games and I think we can be satisfied with where we’re at.

 

"Our sports and athletes have now re-focused after Beijing and it has been very refreshing over the past month or so not only to see our summer Olympians and Paralympians back in action but competing well against international opposition.”

 

“Mission 2012 provides an invaluable snapshot of how each sport is performing in all aspects of their operations. It allows sports to identify any particular challenges and issues they are facing which in turns provides us with the opportunity to provide or help find solutions before they take hold.

 

"This is key as time is flying by and London will be here before we know it so any barriers to optimum performance must be removed.”

 

Through Mission 2012, sports assess their activities across three core areas of work – athletes; system; and climate.

 

A traffic light rating is provided for each area, along with their World Class Performance Programme as a whole.

 

This analysis takes place three times a year with the outputs plotted on a Mission 2012 Tracker Board housed at UK Sport’s headquarters in Central London.