Interview: Henry White, technical lead for BAE Systems’ UK Sports Partnership

BAE Systems’ lead for its partnership with UK Sport is focused on those all-important marginal gains for Team GB in Olympic events. Andrew Wade reports

At the 1996 summer Olympics in Atlanta, Great Britain took home just a single gold medal, the ever-reliable coxless pair of Steve Redgrave and Matthew Pinsent topping the podium. Last summer in Rio, Team GB collected a total of 67 medals, 27 of which were gold. The dramatic improvement can be attributed to many factors, not least the huge amounts of lottery funding that UK Sport has funnelled towards Olympic athletes. Recently, however, technology’s role in the UK’s sporting success has become more pronounced.

For the past eight years, BAE Systems has worked with UK Sport as its official research and innovation partner, employing engineering and technology to eek out marginal gains across a range of Olympic and Paralympic events. Hundreds of athletes have benefitted across more than 30 sports, including track cycling, BMX, wheelchair basketball, bobsled and canoeing. The variety of challenges is one of the things that keeps the engineers on their toes, according to Henry White, BAE’s lead on the UK Sport partnership.