News

SASCOC on Wednesday announced their latest and updated athlete support system for the country’s leading Olympic and Paralympic sportsmen and women at a function at Olympic House, Johannesburg.

This follows a successful Olympic and Paralympic Games in London last year where our Olympians returned with six medals and our Paralympians won 29 medals.

Immediately after the London Games, the country’s Olympic governing body wasted no time in turning its attention to the next quadrennial period leading up to the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Operation Excellence (OPEX) is the premier programme for prospective Olympic and Paralympic medalists and the programme consists of three different tiers which provide varying degrees of funding and support.

A total of 13 athletes on the Olympic Programme and 14 athletes on the Paralympic Programme will be part of the Tier One structure and exciting news is that there is now added special support for athletes who may not be ranked sufficiently high enough but are nevertheless preparing for 2014 Commonwealth Games qualification.

The weightlifter on the latest Olympic support programmes is Jean Greeff, and the weightlifting Team will be part of the Olympics Special Support Programme.

Read the SASCOC Media Release here