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U.S. Olympic sports and athletes will have plenty of funds to support their training for the 2012 Summer Games in London, thanks to the decisions of the U.S. Olympic Committee. The USOC, headquartered in Colorado Springs, held a board meeting in California yesterday to set grants for team and individual sports, and also added new board members. Exact figures have not been released, reports the Gazette, but Olympic officials say the numbers are “relatively comparable” to the $54.5 million in funds doled out before the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing. Most of the money will go toward high-profile sports, such as track and field, gymnastics, and swimming. In Beijing, 64 of the U.S.’s 110 medals came in those three categories.
The committee also approved five new members for its board, bringing the total to 15. Dating back to 2003, the board had 125 members, but its size was substantially reduced in response to criticism of financial mismanagement, writes ESPN. Officials say the restructuring and new members should bring some stability back to the organization, after committee CEO Jim Scherr was fired last year, following the U.S.’s failed campaign to land the 2016 Summer Games in Chicago, which instead will happen in Rio de Janeiro.