'No help' for Crystal Palace 2012 kids

Monday, 23 November 2009

THESE photos show the dismal conditions endured by kids hand-picked for success in the 2012 Olympics.

Elite divers on a fast-track talent programme in Crystal Palace are facing their third winter in a training room where temperatures will fall to minus figures and rain water threatens to wreck their expensive equipment.

The group pays £20 an hour to use the room.

Tessa Lewis, whose daughter Holly, 12, trains there six days a week, said: “It’s very dark and dingy and as it gets more wintry it’s getting worse.”

The diving club almost folded last year when asbestos was discovered in the room and thousands were lost in membership fees because only the most dedicated youngsters remained.

Those who did were forced to commute to Sheffield and Tonbridge Wells for alternative facilities.

Club director Gill Snode said without financial aid they would collapse.

“We have got some of the best Olympic coaches from China and it’s tough paying their wages,” she said.

“It seems mad that we get no financial help from Boris Johnson, who publicly states he wants to do everything he can to help Great Britain win medals – yet he is doing nothing to help us.”

The London Development Agency, which has spent £14million on a refit of the rest of the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre, said funding divers wasn’t its responsibility.

Greenwich Leisure Limited manages the sports centre on behalf of the LDA.

It said it recognised the divers’ facilities were “unsuitable” but it was only ever considered as a temporary measure.

A spokesman said they were working to find alternative arrangements.

Email: newsdesk@slp.co.uk

For the full story, you can get a full online edition at www.slp-e-edition.co.uk

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