Rebecca Adlington hit the headlines in 2008 when she won two gold medals for Great Britain in Olympic swimming events. At Beijing, she became the first British woman for twenty years to win an Olympic swimming title, even producing a twenty-year old world record beating time in the process. 

In preparing for the 2008 Beijing Games, the World Class Pathway scheme was set up. This provided £265 million from the British National Lottery for athletes like Rebecca and gave them access to world-class training, coaching and medical support. Ms Adlington believes this funding has been key to her success. Certainly, the athletes supported in this way came home from China with a haul of over 140 medals. Clearly all eyes are now on the 2012 London Olympics and the UK lottery draw is now financing a similar scheme.

The Olympic Lottery Distributor is a body set up by the UK Government to oversee the distribution of National Lottery funds. They are expected to have an overall budget of £1835 million and will use this money to support all aspects of the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics. 

Twenty-eight pence out of every pound spent by players of the UK lottery draw goes to worthy causes and five pence of that will be going into Olympic funds. 

In total, £2.2 billion of British National Lottery funds will eventually be diverted into creating the actual structures used to host the Games. This should not be seen as a short-term investment however. The Olympics will provide a legacy for the capital city and indeed the country as a whole. Not all the money will be absorbed and lost by the project; the government has announced its intention of selling land formerly used for the Games and returning the profits to the National Lottery for use in other good causes.

An example is the Olympic village. This is partly financed by the UK lottery draw and will house some 17000 athletes and officials while the Games are in progress and in excess of 6000 people during the Paralympics. Once the events are all over, however, the site will be used as part of the Stratford City regeneration scheme, providing around 4000 new office buildings, dwellings, leisure facilities and a new shopping mall.

There are also other projects related to the Olympics and funded by the British National Lottery. Unlimited is an example which will provide sports and art opportunities for disabled people and the lottery fund has produced £3 million to support this initiative as part of the 2012 London Cultural Olympiad.

Previous Olympics have shown how difficult financing the events can be so money raised from the UK lottery draw is a very useful asset. Rebecca Adlington certainly thinks so. During a recent interview she thanked all those players of the lottery for giving her the opportunity to represent her country so well.