April 5 - Australia's Winter Paralympics team, which won four medals in Vancouver last month, including a silver medal for Marty Mayberry (pictured), need to raise more funding if they are continue to be competitive at the next Games in Sochi, Australian Paralympic Committee (APC) chief executive Jason Hellwig has warned.


Vancouver was the team's second best-ever performance behind Salt Lake City in 2002 - when they won seven medals, including six gold - and was largely down to how well-funded the team was.

The team received $1.2 million (£722,000) from public donations and sponsorship while the APC invested $445,000 (£268,000) of its overall annual Federal Government funding.

Hellwig said: "We've had the biggest impact back home that we've ever had for a winter Games.

"We know the Australian public wants to see it and they've got more access to it through raw media exposure.

"We hope that translates to young people with a disability wanting to get involved in sport and compete successfully on the world stage.

"There are pathways to get into sport whether you want to do it recreationally or at the elite level."

Plans for Sochi 2014 are already being drawn up.

Hellwig said: "'We have a worst-case scenario, which would be our current level of funding, I guess.

"We've got some challenges to address.

"We've got Federal Government funding which retires over the next 12 to 24 months and we're working with the Government to not just retain that, but get some increases.

"People will see here a programme that is great value for money.

"We've got a minimum budget but we also know what we want to do with any additional funding or resources that might become available to us.

"Looking ahead to Sochi, we're going to need, somehow, to find additional funding in order to maintain our competitiveness and then to grow again.

"'If we have new sports come on board then that's a cost impost we need to address.

"Growing the number of athletes brings additional costs.

"They're good problems to have but we'll need to address them.'

"We realise Paralympic sport has only relatively recently come from the margins of Australian sport and more into the centre of it.

"I hope these winter Games demonstrated the value of the Australian investment through public donations and Government funding."

Hellwig also called on big business to take a closer look at the Paralympics.

He said: ''I hope we get more corporates interested as well - that they see the value of this world-class product.''


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