Gold is no guarantee of a gong: Downing Street insists Olympic honours should be handed out on 'merit not by quotas'



Some of Team GB's 43 champions could be snubbed in New Year's Honours

Athletes must have shown 'sustained effort' and 'put something back' into the community to be considered

Lord Coe's hands are tied by rules of main honours committee

Repeated success may not lead to an upgrade of previous award

No 10 denies there is limit to the number of honours Team GB can receive

But honours committee member said there were restrictions and 'little room for manoeuvre'

Downing Street is backing at least four sporting knighthoods – Bradley Wiggins, Ben Ainslie, Mo Farah and Dave Brailsford

Downing Street insisted today that honours will be given to gold medal-winning Olympic athletes on merit rather than 'according to quotas'.



With 43 athletes scooping gold at the Games and more expected in the Paralympics, there has been speculation some could miss out in the New Year Honours List.



The most senior civil servant at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport cautioned at the weekend there would be no 'automatic gong' for winning gold in the London Games.



Campaign: Supporters, politicians, and fellow sportsmen alike called for Bradley Wiggins to be honoured following his gold medal performance at London 2012

Jonathan Stephens said the sports honours committee - which makes recommendations for awards - would be looking to recognise those who 'put something back' and showed a 'sustained effort' as well as succeeding in their chosen event.

No 10 today denied reports that new rules drawn up by the head of the Civil Service Sir Bob Kerslake - who chairs the main honours committee - meant there was a limit to the number of honours which could go to Team GB.



'Honours are awarded on merit, not according to quotas,' said the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said.



His comments appeared at odds with those of s ports honours committee member Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson, however, who said they were restricted in the number of awards they could make.



In a normal year, the former Paralympic gold medallist said , the committee would be restricted to one or two knighthoods, 'a few more' CBEs and between 45 to 50 MBEs - the lowest tier in the honours system.



She said there might be 'a little room for manoeuvre' in the light of Team GB’s success, but that they were trying to 'manage expectation' ahead of the publication of the Honours List at the end of the year.

National hero: DOuble Olympic gold medal-winner Mo Farah has had his chances of a knighthood rocked by recent revelations about honours rules

'We do have a limit on the numbers that we can award each year. I think that is where we are trying to manage expectation,' she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.



'The sports honours committee can’t just give out 20 knighthoods or 20 dames. We have a number each year that we allocate.



'Although there might be a little room for manoeuvre with the success of this year’s Olympics and hopefully Paralympics, we are trying to manage expectation a little bit.'



Golden girl: Heptathlete Jessica Ennis became a national favourite after her Olympic performance

She said that gold medallists - who in the past might have expected an MBE as a matter of course - would have to be considered alongside those who had contributed through years of volunteering.



'We’d love to give out honours to absolutely everyone but I think the key is in the title - it’s an honour, it’s not an automatic reward,' she said.



'We are trying to balance achievement in sport against somebody who has maybe volunteered for a number of years.'

Officials were fighting a frantic damage-limitation exercise last night after Mr Stephen's comments amid fears some of Team GB's champions will be snubbed.

Double gold medallist Mo Farah's chances of a knighthood were rocked by claims that Whitehall officials on the Honours Committee have imposed a quota of just one sporting knighthood a year.



Last night the man who masterminded Team GB's record-breaking success urged them to junk the rules and give every gold medallist a gong.

Lord Moynihan, who has just quit as head of the British Olympic Association (BOA), told the Mail: 'Every single gold medallist has achieved both objectives. They have shown a lifetime of commitment and inspired a generation. They all deserve recognition.'

The sport honours committee is led by Lord Coe, architect of London 2012. but his hands are tied by rules drawn up by Sir Bob Kerslake.

They must now 'take account how the candidate has used their profile for the benefit of the wider community and/or development of sport'. That could lead to 'a silver medallist who has competed at the highest level over a long period getting an award, when an 18-year-old winning gold at their first competition might not'.

Contenders: Victoria Pendleton and Ben Ainslie, both gold medallists at the Games, are among those who could be honoured

Repeated success may also not lead to an upgrade of a previous award.

Under the plans, there is supposed to be just one sporting knight or dame, four CBEs, 20 OBEs and 38 MBEs from the world of sport.

But the quotas take no account of the runaway success of the London Games, which saw 43 gold medallists in 29 events. That figure is expected to hit three figures once the Paralympic Games have finished.

Yesterday Mr Stephens defended the rules, saying: 'It's the contribution over career and over a lifetime, it's how that's sustained, it's whether you put something back.

'But also all those behind the scenes: the volunteers, the organisers, the coaches, both at the elite level and at grassroots level.'

He said the decisions would be taken by experts. 'It's chaired by Seb Coe, it has other Olympians and Paralympians on it like Tanni Grey-Thompson and Tessa Sanderson. I'm sure they will not in any way underplay the achievement of our athletes.'

The rules put the Honours Committee on a collision course with the BOA, which is expected to nominate every gold medallist for an honour.







They were rewritten this spring after criticism of the way 35 members of the England rugby set-up were honoured after the 2003 World Cup win and the decision to give an MBE to every member of the England cricket team after they reclaimed the Ashes in what is essentially a two-horse race in 2005.

Earlier this year, Sir Bob told a committee of MPs that it 'no longer seems right' that all Olympic champions should get honours 'given the move away from “automaticity” in other fields'.

Downing Street is backing at least four sporting knighthoods – Bradley Wiggins, Ben Ainslie, Mo Farah and Dave Brailsford.

Sailor Ainslie is considered a shoo-in after becoming just the third British athlete – after Sir Steve Redgrave and Sir Matthew Pinsent – to win four golds in as many games.

Wiggins won his fourth gold this year and became the first British cyclist to win the Tour de France, while Brailsford ran both Team GB's cycling team that won nine golds and Team Sky, which finished 1-2 in the Tour. He has a CBE, so the next honour has to be a knighthood.

Former head of the British Olympic Association, Lord Moynihan (left) has led calls for gongs for every gold medallist, but rules drawn up by chairman of the main honours committee, Sir Bob Kerslake (right) could affect the final decision

In winning two gold medals on the track, Farah has matched the achievement of Dame Kelly Holmes in Athens.

A source close to the Honours Committee hinted that Farah would get a gong: 'Part of this is about community engagement and Mo runs a charity. He does a lot of charity work.'

Former sports minister Gerry Sutcliffe told the Mail: 'This is an extraordinary time. This Olympics was a unique event for the country.

'The rules should be relaxed for the London Games.'