Boa Brings In Expert Help For 2012 Athletes

British Olympic Association elite performance director Sir Clive Woodward has unveiled a new scheme led by a panel of 10 sporting experts to aid the drive towards fourth place in the medal table at the 2012 Olympics in London.

The panel will work alongside schemes already under way to help athletes prepare for London 2012.

Woodward has been testing the £20m programme over the past nine months on golfer Melanie Reid, 20, a British amateur ladies champion who is about to join the professional circuit.

The pilot programme will now be extended to the Olympic sport of judo and Edinburgh’s Euan Burton, who won a bronze in the men’s 81kg weight at this year’s World Judo Championships, will be the next athlete to take part.

The scheme will concentrate on around 25 athletes who show enough potential to be gold medal winners in five years’ time.

‘The most important thing is identifying talent as early as we can and putting the support systems in place to ensure that they have every chance of delivering in 2012,’ said Woodward.

‘The programme covers areas that maybe haven’t been seen too much in many sports in this country but it allows (athletes) to play at the top level.’

The programme will be funded by money the BOA raises from the private sector and it is hoped that successful Olympic sports, such as sailing, rowing and cycling, will be able use the expert help as they see fit.

The programme will complement the existing plans of each Olympic sport, with the decision on which athletes are involved taken by each sport’s performance director and agreed through Mission 2012.

Woodward said: ‘My brief was to look at how we might provide talented athletes, coaches, performance directors and their governing bodies with a service that could add value and complement the excellent work already being delivered by UK Sport and our Olympic governing bodies. I see the future of this programme working side by side with them.’