As athletes from around the world make their final preparations for the Olympic Games, BBC Caribbean.com explores how Caribbean nations are footing the cost of sending their representatives to Greece. While countries like the United States have a wealth of resources available to ensure their athletes are ready for the Olympics, many Caribbean countries are not in such a privileged position. The levels of funding for athletes across the Caribbean vary greatly from country to country and the quality of their athletes. Trinidad and Tobago will be represented in Athens by 26 athletes and 11 officials. Elton Prescott, Secretary General of the Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee (TTOC) told BBC Caribbean.com that most of the money to get the contingent to Greece has come from corporate sponsorship with one major financial institution providing a substantial contribution to cover the costs leading up to the Games. "This year we identified 14 or so athletes quite early, who received up to a quarter of a million TT dollars (US$40,820) each to assist them with their training in anticipation of their competing. Only one of them did not qualify and I suppose no further funding was offered to them," Prescott said. Government makes a small contribution to the Olympic team. This covers expenses such as departure tax and some training costs. "The other contributors are the International Olympic Committee (IOC) which meets the costs of all developing countries of a number of athletes and in our case it was six athletes and two officials," he said. IOC Funding The IOC funding comes predominantly from a body called the Olympic Solidarity Commission. The Commission, which draws its four year assistance budget of US$209 million from a share of the TV broadcasting rights of the Olympics, gives some assistance to all developing countries for the Games. Other athletes who don't receive funds from government or the IOC often broker private sponsorship deals. Some assistance is provided by the TTOC - which is funded by the IOC - to get the athletes to and from qualifying meets. Jamaica, the Caribbean's strongest medal contender on the track, has 53 athletes competing in four sports and 25 officials going to Greece. Just getting them to Athens comes in at a grand total of US$300,000 (over 18 million Jamaican dollars) - raised solely through sponsorship and funding from the Olympic body with no contribution from government. This cost does not take into account the cost of the four-year training programme leading up to the Games and all the qualifying rounds athletes must attend. Veda Bruno-Victor of the Grenada Olympic Committee puts that cost - training, nutrition and sending athletes around the world to compete - at around US$100-150,000 dollars. Compare that however with cash-strapped Dominica which is sending a delegation of two track and field athletes to Athens plus two coaches and three officials. Thomas Dorsett, Secretary General of the Dominica Olympic Committee told BBC Caribbean.com, that it costs around EC$10,000 (US$3,745) for basic training not including qualifying training. It costs a further EC$6-7,000 (US$2,200-2,600) to send them to Greece. Dominica's money which comes predominantly through the Solidarity Commission with some contribution from private sponsorship deals - was still not enough to cover sending the athletes abroad to train before the Games. "Our total expense would exceed EC$124,000 (US$46,441) and where the subsidies from the IOC would be about EC$77,000 (US$28,838) we would fall short of about almost EC$50,000 (US$18,726) in attempting to participate at the Games." "We just have to dip into our overdraft immediately and then when the top ten sponsors send in the next grant, we would probably just cover it then but that's probably still not adequate enough to do that," Mr Dorsett said. Grenada has also relied heavily on funding from the Olympic Solidarity Commission to get its 3 track and field athletes and two swimmers to Athens. "For a small island like us it ranges anywhere between EC$50-75,000, but fortunately we had some athletes like Alleyne Francique who had an Olympic scholarship through Olympic Solidarity and we were able to work with him that way," she said. "As he is a professional athlete he was able to compete without us having too much difficulty financially," Mrs Bruno-Victor said. "The others, all of them are in school and it is after school we work with them in competitions," she said. "For those trying to qualify for the Olympics we spent just over EC$50,000 (US$18,726) (in the immediate run up to the Olympics) to prepare them and most of that money has come from Olympic solidarity funding." SOURCE: BBCCARIBBEAN.COM