British Gas Backs British Swimming In £15m Deal

In the build-up to the London 2012 Olympics, British Swimming has struck a massive sponsorship deal with British Gas with the utilities firm paying £15m for a six-year sponsorship contract running until 2015.
 
Under the terms of the new deal, British Gas will support every level of swimming, from learners and grassroots to elite athletes as well as related sports such as water polo and diving.
 
The new partnership will back projects aiming to provide everyone in Britain with an opportunity to learn to swim and will look to build on the success of the Beijing Olympics in encouraging people from all backgrounds and standards to get involved and enjoy swimming.
 
The sponsorship focus on three key areas – increasing and maintaining community swimming facilities; promoting a health message to children; and identifying and nurturing talented individuals to increase the number of world-ranked British athletes.
 
The sponsorship includes the three Home Country Associations of the ASA, Swim Wales and Scottish swimming, and provides British Gas with the title sponsorship of all British aquatic teams as well as national events across all disciplines – a partnership at all levels from grassroots to elite.
 
British Swimming Chief Executive David Sparkes welcomed the deal: ‘This is a great partnership with tremendous synergy between British Swimming, the home country federations and British Gas.
 
‘British Swimming looks forward to working with British Gas as a long term partner and this provides us all with an opportunity to take a significant step forward. Together we’ll work hard towards achieving more medals in London 2012 and to get more people swimming more often and having more fun.’
 
The news of the tie-up with British Gas comes only a day after Speedo announced it was extending its sponsorship deal with British Swimming until 2016.