LONDON: Olympic gold medallist Dame Katherine Grainger has been named as the new chair of UK Sport.

Great Britain’s most decorated female Olympian retired from rowing after winning a medal at a fifth Games last summer. The 41-year-old will succeed Rod Carr as head of the funding agency for elite sport.

Grainger was up against former Paralympic swimmer Marc Woods, who also competed at five Games.

It comes as recommendations aimed at improving athletes’ welfare have been published as part of a major independent report into British sport.

They are the result of a year-long duty of care review, commissioned by the UK government and led by 11-time Paralympic gold medallist Baroness Grey-Thompson.

UK Sport is the body which has directed the use of Lottery funding into medal-pursuing sports at the Olympic Games but has come in for criticism over apparent lax insistence on governance after the problems which have assailed British Cycling.

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