Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Officials hail new Olympic cash

Team 2012 hope to boost Britain's medal chances in 2012
The new partnership hopes to boost Britain's medal chances in 2012

GB Olympic officials hope to be able to field the strongest team ever at London 2012 with a new funding initiative.

Budgets were £50m short of target when announced in January but Visa is believed to have committed close to £10m to the Team 2012 initiative.

Team 2012 is aiming to raise £25m in all to support athletes.

And British Olympic Association chief Andy Hunt said: "This is a real opportunity to field the broadest, most competitive team at 2012."

Team 2012 brings together the BOA, the British Paralympics Association and the London 2012 organising committee and UK Sport.

This is a terrific vote of confidence by the business community

Minister for Sport Gerry Sutcliffe

Its aim is to provide a third stream of private sector income, to run alongside National Lottery and government funding, for leading athletes.

Eight Olympic sports, including fencing, and shooting, and four Paralympic sports saw their funding slashed by over 50% in January.

But John Steele, chief executive of funding body UK Sport, said those sports will not be prioritised for this new funding.

"They are in the mix with everyone else," he said. "We will do what we've always done, which is to invest money on merit."

Minister for Sport Gerry Sutcliffe said: "This is a terrific vote of confidence by the business community in the work being done to give our medal hopefuls the best chance of striking gold in 2012."

The BOA's Olympic coaching programme, led by Rugby World Cup-winning coach Sir Clive Woodward, will receive "seed corn funding" from the deal.

Steele said there was "100% support" for the programme, following suggestions of unrest among athletes over the initiative possibly infringing their own sponsorship deals.

"Team 2012 is not linked to specific athletes. Intellectual property and image rights have not been impeded so athletes are free to do other deals," added Steele.

ะพ 4:14 AM

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