The Chief Executive of UK Sport, Sally Munday OBE, has praised GB Boxing for its role in helping to inspire the nation through sporting success.

The comments are in the guest Foreword Munday contributed to GB Boxing’s newly published Annual Review 2022-23.

In the Review, Munday says: “The World Class Programme (WCP) for boxing is undoubtedly an important player in our family of sports. The performances of the boxers have been central to this, but equally importantly, boxing is a significant sport within the high-performance landscape as it plays a vital role in reaching many different communities and widening the appeal of Olympic sport. “The diverse make-up of the athlete cohort at GB Boxing, which represents a wide-cross section of society, means it is a very effective sport at inspiring people in hard-to-reach communities and has the capacity to deliver positive outcomes that go beyond performance in the boxing ring.”

In a wide-ranging piece that assesses the wider impact of GB Boxing as an organization, Munday describes it as “a beacon for the promotion of women’s sport, with the historic achievements of Nicola Adams and, more recently, Lauren Price and Karriss Artingstall”.

She goes on to praise GB Boxing’s role in establishing a new international federation, World Boxing, which is focused on ensuring that boxing remains on the Olympic programme at Los Angeles 2028 and beyond.

Munday says: “Sometimes organisations need to step forward and take action and I think the board and leadership of GB Boxing deserve great credit for their work in trying to preserve boxing’s place at the heart of the Olympic movement.”

In summing up the ethos of GB Boxing and her aspirations for the future of the World Class Programme (WCP) which is funded by UK Sport, she adds: “ A belief in putting the athletes first is one of the key principles that has underpinned so much of the success that GB Boxing has achieved in recent years and I have no doubt that, whatever challenges it comes up against in the future, the WCP for boxing will continue to thrive and its boxers will keep on inspiring the nation.”

“Delivering sporting success in a changing world’ covers the period 1 April 2022 – 31 March 2023. It documents the medal winning achievements of the boxers in this period and showcases how these have taken place against a backdrop of significant challenges.

In addition to Munday’s Foreword, the Review includes first-person contributions from GB Boxing’s Chair, Jason Glover and Performance Director, Rob McCracken, who outlines the difficulties in trying to deliver sustainable success when boxers consistently leave the WCP after winning an Olympic medal.

McCracken explains: “Any detailed analysis of the recent history of GB Boxing reveals that four years on the WCP is rarely enough time for a boxer to acquire the physical, mental and technical attributes required to win a medal in a sport as tough and competitive as Olympic boxing.

“By way of illustration, the six boxers who delivered Great Britain’s historic six-medal success in Tokyo, spent an average of nearly seven years as part of the WCP. In the case of Galal Yafai, who won gold, and Pat McCormack, who secured a silver, this entailed going to two Olympic Games.

“Experience counts for an enormous amount in international boxing and the longer a boxer grows and develops in the GB Boxing environment, the better chance they will have of winning an Olympic medal.”

The Performance Director, who was awarded a CBE for his services to sport in 2023, goes on to praise his colleagues at GB Boxing and offers an upbeat assessment of the possibilities for future success.

He adds: “I am surrounded by a group of coaches and support staff that understand the importance of long-term thinking and know what it takes to create Olympic champions. This group of people have been central to the success we have enjoyed at GB Boxing and provided they are around to support the boxers then I am optimistic about the future.

“There will be some bumps in the road - that is the part and parcel of elite sport. But I have no doubt that if we keep the majority of our best people together and retain the expertise that has contributed so much to GB Boxing over the last decade, then we can continue to deliver sustained medal success for many more years.”