Olympic Newsdesk - Visa Teams with British Olympians; Rio Drops FINA Event

Visa will be a “presenting partner” for the British Olympic and Paralympic teams for the 2012 London Games. (Getty Images) (ATR) Visa has become the $15 million “presenting partner” of a plan to raise extra funds to prepare Britain’s Olympic and Paralympic squads for the London Games.

The financial services giant has been a worldwide partner of every summer and winter Olympics since 1986. Visa’s endorsement of the scheme, called Team 2012, was characterized by sources in London as “getting the project a long way towards our target”, although officials declined to put a value on the sponsorship. Media estimates suggest it may be worth $16 million.

The Team 2012 scheme was developed when UK Sport, the national elite sports funding agency, failed to raise any significant amounts towards a $160 million target of commercial funding set for it by government three years ago.

On home soil in 2012, Britain is aiming at fielding a 700-strong team, the biggest in its 116-year Olympic history.

The Visa deal was launched at London’s Olympic Stadium, attended by the minister for sport, Gerry Sutcliffe, with competitors from all 47 Olympic and Paralympic sports and disciplines.

“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 Programs through a vital ‘third stream’ of private sector income, which will sit alongside existing National Lottery and Government funding, for our most promising athletes,” it was announced.

Peter Ayliffe, President and CEO of Visa Europe, says Team 2012 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 launch was made possible after the bodies running the scheme reached agreement over image rights with Britain’s 1,200 publicly funded athletes. Star names, such as swimmer Rebecca Adlington, cyclist Chris Hoy and sprinter Christine Ohuruogu, who might be most attractive to commercial sponsors, had originally refused to sign up to the deal, despite jeopardizing their funding status.

Rio Drops FINA Event

Lack of funding has caused Rio de Janeiro to cancel next month’s World Cup swimming competition, according to the Associated Press.

FINA’s World Cup website shows the event, scheduled for Oct. 23 to 25 has been cancelled, leaving events only in Durban, Moscow, Stockholm, Berlin and Singapore.

Cornel Marculescu, executive director of FINA, said Rio also will not host the 2010-13 World Cups.

“There Senegal participates in the opening ceremony of the Francophone Games in Beirut, Lebanon . (Getty Images)are no financial resources. They cannot find any funding. They say they cannot do it,” Marculescu told AP.

Marculescu said the city told them of the decision “two or three weeks ago,” coming just weeks before Rio de Janeiro makes its presentation for the 2016 Olympics bid to the IOC in Copenhagen.

“The Olympic Games is a different budget,” Marculescu said. “Rio’s proposals for aquatics venues are very good.”

Rio proposed three aquatics venues for the Olympics in its bid books. The cost would total more than $79 million.

Francophone Games Begin in Lebanon

A total of 3,000 participants of 42 French-speaking nations from around the world are competing at the 6th Francophone Games, which is being held in Lebanon through Oct. 6.

The event got underway on Sunday with the opening ceremonies at Camille Chamoun Sports City stadium in Beirut, which featured speeches Theo Fleury, who played for Canada at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, announced his retirement from the NHL. (Getty Images)by Lebanese president Michel Sleiman and Francophone Games secretary general Abdou Diouf.

Canada is the largest of the 42 delegations with 300 athletes and officials. France has 200 participants and host Lebanon has 150.

The event features six sports – athletics, basketball, football, judo, table tennis and beach volleyball – as well as seven cultural competitions.

The Francophone Games is held every four years. The event debuted in 1989 in Morocco and was last held in 2005 in Niger.

The Organisation International de Francophone (OIF) are the organizers for the Francophone Games.

Briefs…

…Finnish alpine skier Marcus Sandell had his left kidney removed in a hospital in Innsbruck, Austria after crashing during a training run on the nearby Pitztaler glacier on Monday. According to a report by Finnish news agency STT, Sandell injured his kidney, spleen and back and broke his nose and hand in the crash.

…NHL and Olympic hockey player Theo Fleury announced his retirement on Monday. The 41-year old Fleury helped lead Canada to the gold medal at the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City and the Calgary Flames to the 1989 Stanley Cup title.

…Canadian Olympic freestyle skier Deidra Dionne is expected to announce her retirement later this week. The 27-year old Dionne won a bronze medal at the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City and claimed bronze medals at the 2001 and ’03 world championships.

Written by Greg Oshust ,Steven Downes and Isia Reaves.

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