22. Februar 2006  
London / GBR  
Artistic Gymnastics

Gymnast used in London bid quits

Brown on the London 2012 bid poster
A gymnast used in the marketing campaign for London's 2012 Olympic bid has been forced to quit the sport because of a lack of funding.
<< Ben Brown, who was pictured vaulting the 'Gherkin Tower' in the campaign, is now working full-time in a bank.
'It's been on the cards for a while,' he told BBC Radio Five Live. 'I've had to give up the sport because there's a huge lack of funding. I'm not able to train six hours a day, six days a week, without any income.'


Brown says there is no way he can continue to train while he is working full-time: 'It's just not feasible. When you've been at work all day, by the time you get to the gym it's not really worth it. Your mind's not on it and you're tired. If you want to do it properly, you have to focus and concentrate for the duration of the session, which can be six hours.
We train in the school hall at the moment in Sutton. It's not the ideal environment - we haven't even got full-time access and need new equipment.
We're not asking for much but anything would help and hopefully spur me on and persuade me to go the Olympics.'
No-one from British Gymnastics was available to talk to BBC Sport about the story on last Thursday.
But Matthew Crawcour, a spokesman for UK Sport, said Brown did not qualify for its funding: 'We run a world-class performance programme and work exclusively with athletes who have a world ranking,' he said.
'That's not the case with Ben to be honest. He competed at the World University Games last year and finished 52nd.'

A spokesperson for London 2012 said it was not embarrassed to have used Brown in its advertising campaign for the Olympic bid.
Source: BBC SPORTS, Gymnastics


>>> ... read more about it: Offical Statement of the President of Britsh Gymnastics, to the financal situaton on the way to Olympics 20012 in Great Britain (GYMmedia, 26-Jan-2006).