Team GBR

Team 2012 was today launched at the London 2012 Olympic Stadium, with leading payment system Visa announced as its Presenting Partner. It represents a huge new ambition for British sport, and is the largest national team ever sponsored, comprising approximately 1200 athletes from 47 sports and disciplines, Olympic and Paralympic alike.

Team 2012 will help realise the dreams and ambitions of all Britain’s Olympic and Paralympic athletes and is a groundbreaking partnership between the British Olympic and Paralympic Associations (BOA and BPA), the London Organising Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG), and UK Sport.  The four bodies came together earlier this year to create this initiative for Olympic and Paralympic sponsors to get behind the nation’s top athletes aiming for London 2012 and beyond.  

Sophie Wells, Para Dressage hopeful for the London 2012 Paralympics, is part of the team and commented: “Taking part in Team 2012 is something that I am really excited about. An opportunity to represent your country on home soil at a Paralympic Games doesn’t come around very often and it is important that programmes like Team 2012, which will help secure important funding for Olympic and Paralympic sports, make the most of this.”

Visa’s sponsorship will help support sporting bodies as they provide the training and competition support needed for athletes aiming to become part of Team GB and ParalympicsGB at the London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games. The sponsorship deal, which runs through to 2012, is transformational for the partnership, ensuring Team 2012 is able to deliver on its ambition of providing extra funding for World Class Performance Programmes through a vital ‘third stream’ of private sector income, which will sit alongside existing National Lottery and Government funding, for our most promising athletes. The launch marks the start of a major long term fundraising drive through to 2012 and beyond.

Speaking on behalf of the partnership, LOCOG Chairman Sebastian Coe said:  “Today’s launch of Team 2012 is a ground-breaking moment for British sport. Team 2012 will help bring to reality the dreams of future generations of athletes in competing at the very highest level.  We are delighted to have Visa as the presenting partner and driving force behind Team 2012. Their support is vital and complements the crucial funding from the National Lottery and Government. Team 2012 will help ensure that as Olympians and Paralympians head toward London, they are properly resourced to do the job and make Britain proud.”

Visa has been a proud Olympic sponsor for over twenty years, and sees Team 2012 as an immense opportunity to increase the UK’s chances of Olympic and Paralympic success.  Peter Ayliffe, President and Chief Executive Officer of Visa Europe commented: “As a worldwide partner of the Olympic Games since 1986, Visa is proud to have created such a prolific partnership with Team 2012. It will embody British pride, courage, effort and achievement and provides a unique opportunity for the country to get behind the UK’s best athletes and help them compete and win more medals than ever before. The athletes’ race for success doesn’t begin at the starting line, it has already begun, and Visa plans to support them every step of the way through Team 2012.”

The drive for private sector sponsorship of the World Class Performance Programme came from Government.  Gerry Sutcliffe MP, Minister for Sport added: “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. It is fantastic that Visa has stepped forward, and I am confident that this extra funding - building on the unprecedented levels of public funding for our athletes - will help our Olympic and Paralympic teams deliver even more medals in London.”
 
While a small amount of Team 2012 funds will be allocated to programmes run by the BOA and BPA, the programme is primarily aimed at supporting UK Sport’s World Class Performance Programme.  It allocates funds to National Governing Bodies, who in turn use it to support athletes’ training and competition needs.

Funding raised by Team 2012 for the World Class Performance Programme (WCPP) will be allocated alongside existing Lottery and Exchequer income to sports, based on UK Sport’s successful ‘no compromise’ investment strategy.  It seeks to ensure that all sports and athletes with the potential to compete and win on the world stage are properly resourced in the four years leading up to a Games, whilst recognising that in some sports individual athletes still need to find additional sponsorship to achieve their goals. In particular the WCPP funds:

� World class coaching
� Sports science and medicine and other technical support, including research and innovation
� International competition and training schedules and travel
� Athlete development programmes, including personal awards to allow athletes to train full time.

In addition to Visa’s support as Presenting Partner, in the build up to London  Team 2012 will actively be seeking further sponsorship from Olympic and Paralympic partners, as well as introducing opportunities for small and medium sized firms, individual and corporate donors and eventually the general public to get behind the programme.