JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Oscar Pistorius and Caster Semenya have been left off a list of athletes to receive funding by the South African Olympic Committee ahead of the 2016 Rio Games.
South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee chief executive Tubby Reddy says Pistorius wasn’t included on the Operation Excellence support program because of his decision not to compete this year to concentrate on his murder trial. He’s accused of shooting his girlfriend.
The absence of Semenya, the 2009 800-meter world champion and London Olympic silver medalist, was more surprising. Reddy says Semenya was excluded on the advice of the national track federation because she was not training or competing and it was unclear if she would run at the worlds.
Reddy says “there is no point spending money on athletes that are not training.”
