adminAll members of Australia’s swimming team bound for the London Olympics starting this month will receive an initial share of more than $Aus750 000 (US$767 000) to assist in their final preparations for the Games.
Swimming Australia said the new arrangements will also lead to financial and training support for a greater number of athletes.
In addition to the initial payment, athletes will be eligible to earn financial performance bonuses based on their medal and finals achievements in London. SA said an individual gold medal will be worth $Aus35 000, and a relay gold medal valued at $Aus60 000, to be shared across both heats and finals swimmers.
SA President David Urquhart said the funding and support model was crucial to maintaining and improving on Australia’s success in the pool and rewarding those athletes who perform on the world stage. Our previous model was based around national rankings, as opposed to world rankings and international performance, and we need to put our limited resources towards aiming for international success,” Urquhart said in a statement.
“It’s a clear vision of the organisation to be the world’s leading swimming nation by 2016 and to achieve that goal we need to make decisions in the best interest of performance, by rewarding those who are successful on the world stage.” World 100m freestyle champion James Magnussen said the incentives were personally irrelevant when it came to chasing Olympic medals, but more support for world rankings made sense. — AFP.
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