In December 2012, UK Sport announced the funding it would make available to sports in the run up to Rio 2016. However, because of the narrow criteria they set which were based wholly on medals potential, the funding to Badminton was actually cut from £7.4m to £5.9m. Badminton is a sport which is accessible to all. Sport England’s own data indicates that badminton is the 6th largest sport in terms of weekly participation rates, ranking it well ahead of other sports such as rowing or sailing which receive significantly more funding. Official statistics suggest that from October 2011 to October 2012, a total of 544,200 people played badminton regularly, more than 10 times the number who rowed regularly and yet badminton has received less than one fifth of the funding that rowing has manage to secure in the run up to Rio 2016. We all want the 2012 Olympics to have a lasting legacy. Badminton is a sport which anyone with access to basic equipment and a school sports hall or leisure centre is able to enjoy and we badly need an increase and not a decrease in funding for sports such as this. We call on the government to get UK Sport to allocate more funding to badminton in the run up to Rio 2016.