 Water polo bosses say the men's team may have to pull out of London 2012
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Eight Olympic sports have had London 2012 funding slashed because of a £50m budget shortfall.
The move will prompt fears Team GB may be unable to fulfil hopes of fielding a team in every sport in London.
Shooting's allocation has been slashed by £3.84m, forcing a move from 46 funded athletes to about 10.
Water polo has suffered a 50% cut to £1.45m and bosses have warned the men's team may be forced to pull out of contention for the 2012 Games.
Water polo performance director Nick Hume said: "It's pretty bleak. We think the absolute cheapest you could do it on would be about £2.5m.
"That would get two decent teams to London - on a real shoestring - but anything less than that and you would be really cobbling something together.
"We've got some tough decisions to make but we'll not rush into them, and we'll explore every possible avenue."
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Our funding has been up and down like an elevator and that is no way to build for Olympic success
Steen Kyst Hansen
Table tennis performance manager |
Handball, which has received £2.99m over the last three years, must make do with £1.448m over the next four and table tennis has also seen a 50% cash cut.
"If that is how they think you run an elite sport programme then I really worry," said GB table tennis performance manager Steen Kyst Hansen.
"Our funding has been up and down like an elevator and that is no way to build for Olympic success.
"It's all terribly disappointing and we're going to have to have a long, hard think about what we do. But big boys don't cry even when the news is really, really bad."
However, three Paralympic sports have had their funding increased by small amounts - women's wheelchair basketball is the biggest winner with a £290,000 rise.
Last month UK Sport increased the funding to many Olympic sports - including cycling, which delivered 14 medals in Beijing - with over £292m of the revised budget allocated.
The remaining sports - none of which won medals in Beijing - were given £25.6m for their 2008 preparations.
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I firmly believe we have done the best we can to deliver for all sports whilst remaining true to our core responsibility of driving medal success
UK Sport chair Sue Campbell
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This time they have only £11.2m to share between them, and have been told they should look for additional funding elsewhere.
But funding body UK Sport has tried to minimise the impact of the cuts by announcing the sports will be allowed to have all the cash up front rather than split annually during the four-year cycle.
UK Sport chair Sue Campbell said: "It was vital that, having successfully targeted our medal prospects, we also maximised the chances of every sport for London 2012 within our limited resources.
"The past few months have not been easy for anyone, and the decisions we have taken have been tough.
"But I firmly believe we have done the best we can to deliver for all sports whilst remaining true to our core responsibility of driving medal success, that was seen to deliver so well in Beijing."
UK Sport has secured an additional £1.8m from Sports Aid's talented athlete scholarship scheme which could be used to fund promising athletes from these 12 sports.
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606: DEBATE
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The body also says it is making progress on securing some long-term funding from the private sector.
Before funding body UK Sport made its announcement, the British Olympic Association on Wednesday reiterated the desire to compete in every event - as the majority of host nations do.
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