Paula Laboissière        Reporter Agência Brasil

Brasília – Commenting on the London Olympic Games, president Dilma Rousseff emphasized that out of the 259 Brazilian athletes who will compete, 111 of them had assistance under the Bolsa Atleta government assistance program. She added that at the moment, 4,000 athletes get program benefits.

“This is a program that gives aid to athletes at all stages of development, from those just beginning to those competing at the very highest levels, such as the Olympics or even the Para-Olympics,” said the president.

The government’s 2012 budget sets aside R$60 million in direct aid to athletes, besides R$200 million for training center modernization and an additional R$13 million for equipment. There is also a construction budget of R$1 billion that will be used to build and enclose with all-weather roofing some 2,800 gymnasiums in public schools next year, and a grand total of 6,000 gymnasiums (4,000 of them with roofing) by 2014.

According to Dilma, “It is at school, in gyms, during physical education classes that most children have their first contact with sports. It is an opportunity to reveal talent, to begin a more healthy life style and create a love of sports,” she said.

Allen Bennett – translator/editor The News in English

Link - Olimpíadas 2012: Dilma destaca importância do Bolsa Atleta para esportistas brasileiros