Minister for Sport Mark Arbib officially opened the European Training Centre (ETC), a new base for Australia’s athletes in the Italian province of Varese to support the Australian Teams as they prepare to compete in London 2012.
In the 2000-01 run up to the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games The Commonwealth, State and Territory governments (Australia) spent $1.074bn on sport and recreation. That makes this $12.5 million pale into insignificance.
The principal sports supported are rowing, cycling, canoeing, athletics, triathlon, volleyball, basketball, tennis, archery and shooting.
If you want to see photos of the Varese lake (it has two 2000m rowing courses on it) take a look at the British Rowing Technique slides – all photographed at Varese.
The London rowing venue is Dorney Lake and it’ll be used this year for the World Junior championships.