Olympic countdown at two-year mark

Small and medium businesses are being offered a "once in a lifetime opportunity" to invest 20,000 in the development of British athletes over the two-year countdown to the London Olympics. The scheme was launched by Team 2012, the joint venture run by the British Olympic Association, the British Paralympic Association, UK Sport and LOCOG to complement National Lottery and Government funding.

Team 2012 is halfway towards the target of raising 25m – and this new project would provide a much-needed cash injection.

Mr Moynihan said: "We must get the very best of British performing on the day in London two years hence and this gives us the opportunity to fund that.

"What we want to do is make sure there is 25m raised for Team 2012 and this will go a long way towards plugging that gap.

"We are halfway there at the moment but we need to get to that 25m mark and these small and medium enterprises will help us on that road.

"This is a big boost for the BOA. We will be taking a team of over 500 athletes to the Olympics. That is a record number. This is about preparing the athletes and giving them the best shot of a podium finish in 2012."

The money would be invested by the BOA and UK Sport.

The approximate cost of a preparing an athlete with Olympic podium aspirations is 70,000 a year. A development athlete would cost around 40,000.