Through the Athlete Grant Program, Brazil's Ministry of Sports has provided financial support for 111 of the 259 athletes in 32 sports at the London Games. The program also provides financial support for 156 of the 186 members of the Brazilian delegation at the Paralympic Games. The Athlete Grant Program is the largest individual sports sponsorship initiative in the world. The program targets high-performance athletes who achieve outstanding results in national and int'l competitions. Established in '05, the program has already awarded more than 18,000 grants to athletes, for a total investment of R$284.4M ($142.2M) from the Brazilian federal government. In '12, the Athlete Grant Program provided support to 4,243 high-performance Brazilian athletes from 53 sports in the Olympic and Paralympic Games. This number represents a 33.3% increase from the 3,182 athletes who benefited from the program in '11. Regardless of whether athletes have other sponsorship deals, established athletes may also receive financial support, which is a new deal to the program in '12 (SECOM).
