UK Sport And Sportsaid Form 2012 Alliance

Elite funding body UK Sport has launched a strategic partnership with charity
SportsAid designed to offer enhanced support to emerging athletes ahead of the
2012 Games.

The new partnership, which will fund athletes across 35 sports, is as a
result of changes to the TASS (Talented Athlete Scholarship Scheme) scheme
introduced to bring more clarity and certainty to the way in which the
scholarships are awarded.

From April 2008, UK Sport will allocate £8m of TASS funding to athletes in
summer Olympic sports over the four-year cycle through to the London Games in
2012. This money will be part of the overall funding package for National
Governing Bodies designed to maximise medal opportunities at the London 2012
Games.

A further £12m will be administered by SportsAid in the same period to TASS
and TASS 2012 athletes outside of those Summer Olympic sports. In addition, the
charity intends to supplement this with a minimum of £2m private sponsorship.

Higher and Further Education establishments will provide a further £2m worth
of support to help deliver much needed core services to the athletes.

Since TASS, and its sister programme TASS 2012, was introduced in 2004 more
than 3,000 athletes have received financial support, helping them to maximise
their sporting potential without compromising their academic careers.

The new package will enable the direct support of around 800 talented young
athletes, drawn from 35 sports, with grants ranging from £3,500 to £10,000 per
year.

It will also underpin the provision of flexible support to 250 world class
student-athletes as part of UK Sport’s World Class Performance Programme.

From 2008, support to TASS athletes will be delivered via 20 ‘hub’
Institutions, which will in turn offer athletes access to a network of over 100
educational establishments in their region.