Other Sport
Swimming SA cash-strapped
2012-02-10 08:47
Johannesburg - The South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee has pledged to help the cash-strapped swimming federation prepare thoroughly for the 2012 London Olympics.
According to the
Sowetan, SASCOC president Gideon Sam said swimmers will not be distracted from
focusing on winning medals by worrying about the financial challenges
of Swimming South Africa.
"We know that Swimming South Africa are going through a rough patch
in terms of funding, but that won't impact negatively on the performance
of our swimmers.
"We are going to assist swimming as we are doing with the other
federations because we want our athletes to win more medals than ever
before."
Sowetan has learnt the situation at SSA is so bad that some staff
members have already started looking for jobs after being told about the
federation's dire need for funding.
Chad Le Clos is one of the top swimmers expected to win medals for South Africa.
Service providers of SSA, one of the sporting codes that has been
winning for South Africa with athletics at global competitions, have not
been paid for more than three months.
On the overall preparations for the Olympics, Sam said they were happy everything was going according to plan.
"We are well on track with the preparations, it is only when we work
closely with Sport and Recreation South Africa that we will be
successful. We are also fully behind the school sports project driven by
Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula and the Department of Basic Education.