Greece’s Olympic hopefuls will be forced to rely on handouts from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) following Greek government cutbacks in funding for their London 2012 preparations.

Just six years after hosting the Olympic Games, the Greek government has decided to halt funding for the country’s elite athletes preparing to compete in London.

The decision, which follows the austerity measures put in place to deal with the Greek economic crisis, has forced the Hellenic Olympic Committee (HOC) to seek aid from the IOC’s Olympic solidarity program.

The International Olympic Committee will sponsor 22 Greek athletes and the women’s water polo national team ahead of the 2012 Olympic Games according to the Hellenic Olympic Committee president Spyros Kapralos.

The move comes after the Greek government has stopped funding the Greek athletes’ preparation for the Olympics this year.

The IOC will cover the expenses of Lefteris Kosmidis and Vlassis Maras (gymnastics), Ilias Iliadis and Ioulietta Boukouvala (judo), Periklis Iakovakis (athletics), Spyros Gianniotis (swimming), Dimitris Motsios (modern pentathlon), and Panayiotis Mantis and Pavlos Kayialis (sailing), as well as Greece’s world rowing championship medallists Stergios Papachristos, Yiannis Tsilis, brothers Nikos and Apostolos Goudoulas, Yiannis Christou, Giorgos Tziallas, Alexandra Tsiavou and Christina Giazitzidou as well as Christos Tsakmakis (canoe), Vassiliki Vougiouka (fencing), Panayiotis Gionis (table tennis), Athina Douka (shooting) and the women’s water polo national team.

“We had an agreement with the government for funding totalling 30 million euros ($39.57 million) over four years,” HOC president Spyros Kapralos said in an interview.

“But, after receiving eight million euros in 2009, we have received zero this year due to financial difficulties, and what I would characterise as indifference for elite sport from the government.”

“This is not only extremely disappointing and frustrating but it creates huge problems for both the athletes and HOC.”

After securing funding from the IOC to cover the expenses of five elite athletes and the women’s water polo team in the summer, the HOC recently announced that it had managed to get financial aid for a further 17 athletes following a special request from Kapralos to IOC president Jacques Rogge.

“I explained the situation regarding the leading sports to Mr Rogge and told him that the government had stopped funding,” Kapralos said. “It is a huge boost for the athletes that the IOC have offered to help. It’s not so much the amounts involved but the moral support they are getting.”

The athletes were selected on the basis of their performances this year.

But while Kapralos was delighted with the IOC’s decision, he is concerned for the future.

“The amounts may not be hugely significant but it is essential to help them in their preparations for 2012,” he said.

“The big worry though is we don’t know yet what will happen next year. The IOC have agreed to help us for now but this is not a solution to the issue.”
Kapralos is critical of the way that past governments have dealt with the issue of funding for sport and believes the state’s current policy will do significant long-term damage.

“Elite sport faces huge problems in Greece because previous governments have reduced incentives,” he said. “In some cases in the past, athletes were rewarded by way of entry into universities and jobs in the public sector. Those incentives, which do not cost the state money, have disappeared and this is really hurting elite sport.

“I think we will see the results of this in the next few years. Many athletes are not seeing much benefit of participating, especially when they see things like this happening. Instead, many are opting to focus on getting a job or finishing university instead of competing.”

“It takes a lot of time, sacrifice and effort to develop elite athletes and if you stop the process then it takes many years to build it up again.”

Source: Reuters, Athen News, Sport in Greece