The Swimming Australia national governing body has extended its principal partnership agreements with mineral extraction company Hancock Prospecting and the Georgina Hope Swimmers Foundation.
The new four-year deals will run until the 2020 summer Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan. The agreements will also cover the 2018 Commonwealth Games, which will be staged in Australia’s Gold Coast region.
Both Hancock Prospecting and the Georgina Hope Foundation signed on as major partners of the body in late 2012.
Hancock Prospecting chair, Gina Rinehart, has been involved in swimming since 1992.
Swimming Australia president John Bertrand said: “The support from Mrs Rinehart for the next four years will be key in developing our high-performance athletes who can achieve success on the world stage both at the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.”
Australia’s eight gold medals at the 2016 summer Olympic Games included three in the pool for the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay team, Mack Horton in the men’s 400m freestyle and Kyle Chalmers (pictured) in the men’s 100m freestyle.