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Visa to sponsor Team 2012
The British Olympic Association (BOA) has secured a major multi-million pound deal with credit card company Visa to sponsor the British Olympic and Paralympic teams at London 2012.
Team 2012, which will comprise around 1,200 elite performers across 47 sports and disciplines, is the result of a partnership between the BOA, the British Paralympic Association (BPA), the London Organising Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) and UK Sport. It is anticipated that Visa's sponsorship of Team 2012, which is one of the largest national teams to secure such a deal, will also provide additional support to eight sports that had funding reduced by UK Sport as a result of a £50m financial black hole.
The new sponsorship deal will see Visa support the efforts of UK Sport's World Class Performance Programme (WCPP) to prepare athletes ahead of the 2012 London Games, along with National Lottery and government funding. Funding is distributed through the WCPP to national governing bodies to provide world-class coaching, sports science and other technical support and athlete development schemes as part of a 'no compromise' strategy.
LOCOG chair Sebastian Coe said: "The launch of Team 2012 is a groundbreaking moment for British sport. Team 2012 will help bring to reality the dreams of future generations of athletes in competing at the very highest level. "Visa's support is vital and complements the crucial funding from the National Lottery and government. Team 2012 will help ensure that as Olympians and Paralympians head toward London, they are properly resourced to do the job and make Britain proud."
Peter Ayliffe, president and CEO of Visa Europe, added: "As a worldwide partner of the Olympic Games since 1986, Visa is proud to have created such a prolific partnership with Team 2012. "It will embody British pride, courage, effort and achievement and provides a unique opportunity for the country to get behind the UK's best athletes and help them compete and win more medals than ever before."