Olympic Partner focus on youth
Olympics partner Procter & Gamble is to donate $5m (€4m) this Olympic year year to establish and sustain youth sports programmes around the world.  The money will be raised from donations, fundraising and a proportion of sales of such leading brands as Gillette, Pantene ProV and Pampers.
The company announced in December that it would be donating a major part of its Olympic ticket allocation to families of athletes, feeding into its ‘Thank You, Mum’ campaign.
150 Olympic athletes past and present have been nominated as P&G ambassadors, including Katie Taylor and Sonia O’Sullivan in Ireland.
Premier League ups donation
The English Premier League has increased its fund to aid sports participation around the UK in the wake of the London Olympics.  An extra £2m will be put into Premier League 4 Sport, a joint initiative between the League, Sport England and the Youth Sport Trust.  The initial target of increasing participation in Badminton , Judo,Table Tennis and Volleyball by 25,000 was exceeded by more than 50 per cent, and the new money will target the same impact in four more sports – Basketball, Netball, (Olympic) Handball and Hockey.
The premier League explained its assistance and promotion of other sports as an opportunity to work with government on something positive to arise out of the Olympic Games in London.
Marathon runner tests positive
Irish Marathon runner Martin Fagan has confirmed he is the athlete that has tested positive for EPO and will face a two year ban from the sport.  In a moving interview in today’s Irish Times he reveals the pressures and depression that led him to buy and take the drug ahead of yesterday’s Houston Marathon, one of his last opportunities to qualify for the Olympics.