British swimmers to get rewards for their positions at 2012 London Olympics – Swimming news
The British Board of Swimming is close to making a deal with sponsors to award cash prizes to the Britain’s swimmers and coaches on their wins at the 2012 London Olympics. The motive of the deal is to urge the desire of medals in Britain’s swimmers for the
next year’s home Olympics.
The national performance director, Michael Scott, disclosed after the conclusion of 2011 British Gas Swimming Championships that the British Board is working with their managers to acquire a winning prize from sponsors to motivate their athletes. The British
Championships was conducted to select swimmers for the 2011 Shanghai World Championships, in July.
FINA, the international sports governing body, awards $5 million every year as an incentive to its medal winning athletes but they provide nothing to coaches. They also pay $10,000 to world record breakers but unfortunately the case is otherwise for British
swimmers, who do not get prizes.
On the other hand, USA’s Olympic Committee has declared a $25,000 winning prize for every gold medal winner and a cash prize of $15,000 and $10,000 for silver and bronze medallists. At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Michael Phelps became worthy of $130,000 as
a result of his eight record gold medals. He also earned a $1 million prize from Speedo for his performance at these Olympics.
Britain’s Rebecca Adlington, who has just qualified in four events including 200m, 400m, 800m freestyle and 4*200m freestyle relay at 2011 British Championships to compete at 2011 World Championships said, “You don't swim to become a millionaire. It's not
a big-money sport and that's not why you do it. You have goals and that's what you work hard for. Anything you might earn from that is like a bonus but it’s not what gets you where you want to be.”
Britain is working hard to improve the starts and turns of its swimmers, as James Goddard noticed that his speed is equivalent to that of American Champion, Ryan Lochte, but he loses almost one second on every turn. Goddard expresses on the issue by saying,
“The Americans have been killing us underwater, absolutely murdering us underwater. There are massive improvements to be made and that's what we've been working on.”
Britain’s Jonty Skinner has been struggling with coaches to improve the underwater skills of swimmers, whereas, Jody Cosser is leading the sports science team, which will ensure availability of funds to the programmes. They have claimed that they will improve
the starts and turns of all swimmers by at least 80 percent, and if achieved, it will provide a lot of medals to Great Britain and cash incentives to their swimmers at next year’s Olympics.
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