Athletes get €9m Olympic boost as grants revealed

ATHLETES with their sights on the Olympic Games will get grants of up to €40,000 as well as benefiting from €5.935 million awarded to 15 focus sports for high performance plans and another €2.213m made available under the carding scheme announced by Sports Seamus Brennan, yesterday.

It was another bonanza day for Irish sport with an injection of €9m bringing the Irish Sports Council’s investment in high performance sport to over €30m for this Olympic and Paralympic cycle.

In the critical Olympic and Paralympic year, every athlete representing Ireland in Beijing will be comprehensively supported. The two established schemes of Performance Planning, coupled with the International Carding Scheme, will ensure the best possible supports in preparation and training are offered to elite athletes.