Olympic funding grant explained

A US$100,000 grant given to the Cook Islands Sports and National Olympic Committee must be used to send athletes to the London Olympics or be returned to the International Olympic Committee, according to CISNOC treasurer Dan O’Brien.

CISNOC announced in January that it had received the grant, worth about NZ$120,000, from the IOC which would be put towards sporting codes preparing for the Olympics.

O’Brien said the IOC funding was made available after London organisers announced they would remove some previously-pledged subsidies for nations and tighten the rules surrounding those that remained.

Those changes included a provision to repay what subsidies are given to nations after the Olympics. In previous years, the organisers have paid subsidies beforehand.

O’Brien said the changes were relayed to CISNOC early this year and meant that it and similar organisations in small countries were left in the lurk and looking for funding at short notice.

Enter IOC with its grant and CISNOC now has the means to pay for the trip, O’Brien said.

The additional $100,000 grant caused a stir among the other sporting codes, who were not sending athletes to the Olympics and who felt hard done-by as the funds were allocated.

O’Brien acknowledged the sentiment, but said it was necessary that the funding be spent on the Olympic codes.

“The IOC funding is to help coordinate and prepare athletes for the Olympics... If we don’t use it, we have to give it back,” O’Brien said.

“Some of the codes think we have $100,000 in the bank now and they’re saying ‘don’t be a bastard, share it out’. But this is not an option for us.”

The funding will come in four $25,000 lots over the months before the Olympics open in July 27.

O’Brien said the new grant was compounded by the IOC’s funding schedules, which are, unsurprisingly, organised around four-year deadlines that begin and end with the Olympics.

CISNOC has been warned it had not been sticking to the schedules in the desired fashion in the past and that it must be more strict with its funding allocation in the future.

O’Brien said that youth and Olympic appearances were the main focus for the funding schedules.

On the first year of the schedule, all Olympic codes with potential are to get funding to help develop athletes and the institutions around them.

In the second and third years, the funding must be narrowed in focus to youth and people who are showing greater promise to make it to the Olympics, Youth Olympics or higher competitions.

In the fourth year, leading up to an Olympics, the funding must be spent on people headed to an Olympic appearance.

O’Brien said the Oceanic National Olympic Committees, a mother-body to CISNOC, was now working in closer partnership with CISNOC to ensure it meets those guidelines.