The Brazilian Olympic Committee (BOC) and Rio City Hall are already preparing the Brazilian athletes who will compete for medals both in London 2012 and Rio 2016 Games. The “Time Rio” athlete preparation program was launched on Wednesday, February 3, and will receive R$ 12 million grants in the next three years. The president of Rio 2016 Committee Carlos Arthur Nuzman, mayor Eduardo Paes and BOC executive superintendent of sports Marcus Vinícius Freire presented the Project at Palacio da Cidade, Rio’s city hall headquarters. “Time Rio” will have from 10 to 13 athletes who were born and train in Rio de Janeiro. The first four athletes have already been selected: Diego Hypólito (artistic gymnastics), Ricardo Winicki (sailing), Kaio Marcio (swimming) and Barbara Leôncio (athletics) and will be given logistics and financial support. "These athletes will inspire other youths. Wining the Olympic Games was really fortunate for Rio de Janeiro. “We are in debt with the Olympic Movement, once this election enabled us to advertise the city and attract new investments. Rio’s City Hall now wishes to pay back by further supporting Brazilian sport", Eduardo Paes explained. BOC will coordinate project technical issues in partnership with the Brazilian Olympic Confederations and will manage the financial aspects of the actions. “Time Rio” will direct special attention to the structure offered to high performance athletes – salaries paid to coaches, nutritionists and physicians; purchases of sport materials and equipment and travel and competition logistics. All these actions are intended to give athletes optimum conditions to train and achieve their best performance in the competitions. "This project is opening doors to other city halls to follow suit. For the depth of its actions this is a pioneer initiative. We enabling continuous development either for London 2012 or Rio 2016", Carlos Arthur Nuzman said. Besides the support to be provided to swimming, judo, canoeing, sailing, taekwondo, artistic gymnastics and athletics already for 2012 Games, Rio City Hall and BOC also intend to invest in the discovery of new boxing and cycling talents to compete for Brazil in Rio 2016 Olympic Games Rio 2016. In order to achieve this goal, four boxing centers will be established in low income areas and Rio Velodrome, built for Rio Pan American Games 2007, will be used to establish a cycling base team. Barbara Leôncio, who thrilled the world in the final presentation of Rio’s bid to host 2016 Olympic Games, in Copenhagen, is one of the prospect champions of “Time Rio”. In 2007, the Carioca athlete won the Girls 200m final and currently heads Brazilian juvenile ranking. "We will be given support to evolve. Now, our Olympic medal dream cannot escape us. I’m really thrilled. This is a spectacular project", Bárbara celebrated.