Olympic Games: Campbell Calls for Cash Rethink for Athletes

Darren Campbell has renewed his call for Lottery funding to be distributed differently after nearly half of the athletes who receive financial support failed to qualify for Britain's Olympic team. The Olympic 200 metres silver medallist claimed a year ago that too many athletes were not making proper use of their handouts.

With only a day left for athletes to achieve the A-standard qualifying mark for the Games, only 35 of the 66 athletes on the Lottery programme have so far been picked for Athens next month. It has left Britain facing the prospect of sending their smallest Olympic team to the games since 1976.

Statisticians are also predicting that Athens could see the British athletics team's worst performance in the Olympics since those Games in Montreal, where the only medal won was a bronze by Brendan Foster in the 10,000 metres.

'The proof is always in the pudding and here we are talking about it one year on,' said Campbell of his comments about Lottery funding.

Top athletes can receive as much as £30,000 per year. 'I just feel that people need to be educated about how to use the money,' said Campbell. 'I think that by just giving young people money and not advising them about the best way to use it, it's a little bit dangerous.

'I don't blame the athletes because, unless you are educated, you suddenly go from nothing to having £500 a week to spend, which, to any youngster, means you are able to go out and get things you've never had in life before.

'That's human nature. I don't blame them. I just think they need to be educated in the best way to use the money to make them more successful.'

Campbell receives only a small amount of money from the Lottery to spend on medical treatment and to help him fund warm-weather training trips, as each competitor is means-tested.

'For me, the motivation has always been to get off the Lottery programme,' he said. 'If you use it properly and work hard it should be just a stepping-stone to get you to that next level. If you earn enough money to get off the Lottery, you know you've been successful.

'Maybe if I had had more support I wouldn't have had so much hunger.'

Campbell has been selected for the 100 metres and 200 metres in Athens, despite a rib injury forcing him to miss the final of the longer sprint at the Olympic trials in Manchester last weekend.

The problem has now cleared up and Campbell is confident that he can again surprise people when he gets to the Games.

'If I get it right, then I'm going to do something pretty amazing,' predicted Campbell. 'The key thing is I'm the lightest I've ever been, my body fat is the lowest it's ever been and I've got through a full winter. Everything seems to be going for me.'

The 30-year-old Campbell, coached by the 1992 Olympic 100 metres champion, Linford Christie, has justifiably earned a reputation for being Britain's most consistent big-time performer.

Bookmakers, however, were last week offering the Manchester runner at 100-1 for the 100 metres, the event he won a bronze medal in at the world championships in Paris last summer, based on his generally unspectacular form on the European grand-prix circuit this summer.

'My motivation is winning medals, it's as simple as that, and I love competing,' said Campbell. 'When I get to a major championship, that's my moment to shine. I am a reserved person and I like simple things.

'The money and the trappings and all the things are not the things that turn me. It's simply about going out there and competing. That's what's helped me. It means that when the chips are down I can raise my game. I draw on all the energies.

'I worked out a long time ago that people want me to achieve, so what's the point of being nervous. I've basically learned to relax, and yet the hunger is always there.

'If a medal's there, I can always raise my game. In life, you can get into a comfort zone where you dream about having a certain type of lifestyle and it's all about money.

'It can make you soft. I have two kids and a fiancée, but it has not made me soft because nothing has changed. To me, it's still about winning medals.'