Austria will withdraw¹ financial support from its failed athletes in a shake-up of state sport funding, with the country's sports minister attacking their London 2012 squad² as "Olympic tourists".

 

Norbert Darabos told the Kurier newspaper that the country's failure to win a summer Olympic Games medal for the first time in half a century proved legislation³ was needed to end the "watering can" approach that sprinkled⁴（撒） money across a range of sports.

 

Darabos, who said he was fed up with athletes who had performed poorly gushing⁵ about the atmosphere in London, added: "The new law on promoting sports should ensure that Austria no longer produces Olympic tourists."

 

Austria sent 70 athletes to compete in 21 sports at London 2012 but, for the first time since the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, failed to win any medals.

 

"We have to change the structures in time so that we can win medals in Rio in 2016, or else we will again be on the same level as Luxembourg," said Darabos. "They won't win anything in London either."

 

Austria fares far better at winter sports and took home 16 medals, including four golds, from the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.

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