JJoy at the prize or despondency at the thought of “what if?” That is the silver medallist’s conundrum, a question that is probably still on some people’s minds after their performances at the Paris Olympics, and one that was written on the faces of Josh Kerr and Matt Hudson-Smith immediately afterward. Does the motivation for gold become an obsession after a near win?

“It’s different for every athlete,” says Dame Katherine Grainger, five-time Olympic medallist in rowing and now chair of UK Sport. “I won silver and that was the biggest thing ever, my first medal,” she says, recalling her success in the women’s quadruple sculls in Sydney 2000.

“We had never won a medal in women’s rowing for Team GB. It was incredible. Eight years later I had a silver medal, which was heartbreaking because we didn’t expect what we could achieve. Expectations change. It takes so much patience and support for athletes coming back. Whatever the result, they are all Olympians now and that is a cause for celebration.”

But gold, which Grainger finally won in London in 2012, is important. In an interview with BBC Radio 4’s Today programme last week, Grainger admitted he was happy with a total haul of 65 medals, but still had “some work to do” in terms of gold. Team GB’s haul of 14 medals is the lowest in 20 years, raising questions about UK Sport’s funding of sports that offer limited returns on investment. Boxing, for example, took a bronze medal after receiving just over £12 million during the Paris cycle.

Grainger stresses that a lack of medals does not mean that sport funding will be cut. “If you think: ‘These were disappointing Games, now we need to change our investments’, then every sport is afraid of having a series of bad results, for example. That puts far too much pressure on individual athletes because they think: ‘If we don’t perform, that could be the end of our sport.'”

“There’s no way to react immediately, to get a result, so the next decision is made immediately. It’s a far healthier conversation than that.”

Finances have been difficult for UK Sport recently. In April, the Times reported on a statement from the organisation’s chief executive, Sally Munday, to national governing bodies announcing plans to cut a quarter of its own staff. Munday wrote: “We do not believe we can credibly make a case to your government on your behalf for an increase in investment unless we all play our part and demonstrate significant savings and efficiencies.”

Grainger says there have been cuts. “The next Summer Games will be in Los Angeles. As far as travel goes, it’s obviously very different, everything else will be more expensive.” The cost of living has increased in the last year, everything has become more expensive. Realistically, we don’t know if our own budgets can be increased, or at least if we can’t keep up with these cost increases.

“It’s sport that does this phenomenal work and the athletes do incredible things. Our priority is to make sure that money goes directly to them as much as possible. The right thing to do was to look at UK Sport as an organisation and see where we can cut costs and still deliver the strategy and still give the sport the support it needs.”

“It was still important that we were able to achieve our ambitions and we still believe we can. We will just do it on a reduced scale, so we have restructured and had to cut staff, which has not been easy for anyone. It is a tough experience for everyone. But it was the right thing to do.”

A new four-year cycle also brings the search for the next big things. Grainger is speaking as part of the launch of UK Sport’s latest talent identification programme, Find Your Greatness. The aim is simple: to reach 16-24-year-olds with natural sporting talent, who are looking for the right sport to use that talent in and are ready to fill gaps in Team GB and ParalympicsGB. The applications, now open, will be followed by regional trials, with the funding agency hoping to find athletes to compete in skeleton, cycling, modern pentathlon and handball, among others.

“When the Olympics and Paralympics capture the public’s imagination,” says Grainger, “it’s a great moment for people sitting at home wondering, ‘How do you get into this sport?’ It’s really exciting to try to tap into this huge potential.”

Similar schemes in British sport have proved worthwhile in the past. Lizzy Yarnold was a heptathlete before applying to join the Girls4Gold scheme in 2008. She was introduced to skeleton and went on to become Britain’s most successful Winter Olympian. Around the same time, Helen Glover was taken on by the Sporting Giants scheme, which aimed to find bigger athletes. In Paris, she added a silver medal to her rowing gold medals from London and Rio.

“(The programs) change from year to year, from Olympics to Olympics, but they work,” Grainger says. “We just saw four of our brilliant Olympians, men and women, doing these incredible bouldering walls in Paris, but they were all in lead and bouldering. We had no one in speed climbing. So where can we find the athletes who might have talent for speed climbing?”

It all just takes a little imagination, says Grainger. “If you have the natural qualities, you can be included and supported along the way.” Some can even quench their thirst for gold.