Future sports stars get financial help from Govt

The Government has announced a £1 million cash injection for the UK's future sports stars.

Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell revealed today that £1 million in special £10,000 Olympic Scholarships will be given each year to around 100 young people with the potential to be medallists in the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics.

The scholarships, which start next April, will act as a springboard for young sports people aged between 12 and 18 to focus on getting to the 2012 Olympics.

Talented youngsters from disadvantaged backgrounds who would not be able to realise their potential without a scholarship will be given priority with the money being used to provide the best sporting support available, including training facilities, sports psychology, sports and exercise medicine and coaching.

Announcing the scholarships, the Culture Secretary said: "These Olympic scholarships are intended for the best young prospects, some of whom are young people of only 12 or 13 today, but with their sights on 2012.

"Awards of up to £10,000 a year will pay for the cost of travel, for coaching, motivation and nutritional advice to ensure that talent - too much of which now falls by the wayside, through lack of the means to develop it - will be rewarded. Money they can spend anywhere in the world, to get the best."

"Not all will make it, but all will have the chance to try. Opting for the comfort zone is easy but aiming high is better."

The Minister said the scholarships would build on the work of the new Talented Athlete Scholarship Scheme (TASS) and make UK elite sport systems comparable with the best in the world.

The scholarships will provide young talented sports people with the final rung in a ladder of sporting opportunity that can enable them to climb right to the top, she said.

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