DCMS extends deadline for Grainger’s successor at UK Sport
Dame Katherine Grainger is proving a hard act to follow as chair of UK Sport.
DCMS had intended to close the application process to be her successor earlier this week but has now extended the deadline for the £40,000-per-year, part-time role until 15 January.
The decision is understood to have been taken in light of the initial wave of applicants, with sources saying the move was to allow DCMS to consider the broadest possible field of candidates.
Grainger is due to leave UK Sport imminently after eight years in the role, which centres on attracting and distributing funding to national governing bodies of individual sports.
The record-breaking former rower is moving to the British Olympic Association, where she will become the organisation’s first female chair in its 120-year history.
Grainger’s task at the BOA will be to oversee Team GB’s pursuit of success at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina and the LA 2028 summer Games.
Her appointment was confirmed in November, when the 49-year-old was elected to succeed former sports minister Sir Hugh Robertson on an initial four-year term.
Grainger’s predecessor as UK Sport chair was Rod Carr, who also came from a high-performance background at the Royal Yachting Association.
Carr himself succeeded Sue Campbell, who also had a track record in sports administration and went on to lead the Football Association’s hugely successful overhaul of the women’s game.
The DCMS job spec for chair of UK Sport stipulates that canididates should have “significant board level experience in a performance focused organisation” and be “a strategic thinker, with the ability to identify and critically assess opportunities and threats in order to develop effective strategies”.