Funding Gap Could Hit Team GB Size For 2012

British Olympic Association chief executive Andy Hunt has warned that the planned number of athletes comprising Team GB at the London 2012 Olympics may have to be reduced if a funding shortfall cannot be overcome.

The BOA is £4m short of the £8m needed for the planned 550-strong team and if money is not found the team could be nearer 350.

‘We’d like to have the most competitive team across all sports we can but we need to figure out the cost,’ he said.

‘We want to enable people to get their head around the different dynamics and the costs of different team sizes.’

Hunt insisted the announcement was just part of the consultation process and that no decisions had yet been made.

‘What we did was set out a number of different scenarios from having a completely full team taking every home nation place, down to an option where we go for an incredibly competitive team with a reduced number of athletes.

‘There are as many disadvantages being at home as advantages. It is far more complex not taking the team away to one location.

‘If you have 550 athletes you probably have 1,100 in the team including officials and the cost of kitting out 1,100 people is enormous.’

Densign White of the British Judo Association, one of the sports likely to be hit by any cuts on numbers, said the London Olympics were a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and should be seen as such.

‘My view is that we should send as large a team as we can. £4m is the salary of a Premier League footballer. In the greater scheme of things that’s not much.

‘Efforts should and will be made to find that extra money. We do not want to bankrupt ourselves but as this is a home Olympics it is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.’