USOC Gives $100,000 Grant To Phelps' Baltimore Aquatic Club

U.S. Gold Medal-winning swimmer Michael Phelps' "goal of turning" the North Baltimore Aquatic Club (NBAC) into a "training hub for elite, post-collegiate swimmers received a $100,000 boost" Saturday from the USOC, according to Amy Shipley of the WASHINGTON POST. USOC Chief Communications Officer Darryl Seibel said that the USOC's BOD "approved a 2009 budget that included a grant to the NBAC during a meeting" in Costa Mesa, California, over the weekend. Seibel said that he "could not disclose the amount," but a swimming source said that it was $100,000. The funding will "immediately make the NBAC a central focus of the U.S. Olympic development efforts in swimming as the 2012 Summer Games in London approach" (WASHINGTON POST, 12/7). Meanwhile, NBC Sports & Olympics Chair Dick Ebersol said of Phelps, "Americans really get a sense of what a fine young man he is. ... He's unassuming. He always seems to find a way to give you that naive smile." Ebersol: "The emotional bond I have with Michael and [his mother] Debbie is unique, bound together by some tough moments in life. ... All I have to do is look at Debbie Phelps' eyes and we start to tear up" (Baltimore SUN, 12/6).