Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and Minister of Sport Aldo Rebelo have launched a plan to enhance the nation's performance at the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The Brasil Medalhas 2016 plan (Medals for Brazil 2016) aims to land the host among the top 10 medal-winning countries at the Olympics, and in the top five at the Paralympics.

"This plan will improve what we consider essential - the direct support to the athlete - through the podium grant and coach grant, among other initiatives. It will also offer support in sports infrastructure and technology through training centers," Rousseff said, addressing athletes at the Presidential Palace. "It is fundamental that our country has high quality training centers. We will offer 22 training centers to support athletes and help them bring forward this ambition that every athlete has inside. It is also the ambition of 194 million Brazilians, expressed in you (athletes)."

The plan will allocate an additional R$1 billion (about $495 million) to federal public investments in sports between 2013 and 2016.

"The 2016 Olympics open our horizons and challenge us to improve our efforts to achieve more medals. The plan Brasil Medalhas represents a resource of R$1 billion over the next four years, already present and figured in the budget of 2013 to 2016, additional to the existing R$1.5 billion that was already intended for high-performance sports," Rebelo said.

The Ministry of Sport will prioritize investments in Brazilian sports that have the best medal chances. Twenty-one Olympic sports and 15 Paralympic sports have been identified as the focus of the program.

(China Daily 09/16/2012 page7)