Team 2012 – comprising approximately 1200 athletes from 47 sports and disciplines, Olympic and Paralympic alike – has been officially launched at the London 2012 Olympic Stadium.

Team 2012 is a groundbreaking partnership between the British Olympic and Paralympic Associations (BOA and BPA), the London Organising Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG), and UK Sport. The four bodies came together earlier this year to create this initiative for Olympic and Paralympic sponsors to get behind the nation’s top athletes aiming for London 2012 and beyond.

The sponsorship deal from presenting partner Visa will see it named the main sponsor for the Olympic and Paralympic athletes, who will make up the Great Britain team for the London 2012 Games. The programme will sit alongside existing National Lottery and Government funding for Britain’s most promising athletes, and seeks to ensure that all sports and athletes with the potential to compete and win on the world stage, are properly resourced in the years leading up to the Games.