With four months to go before the start of the Olympic Games in Tokyo, the SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) secured its second national sponsorship in two months. Sascoc received a huge boost when it signed a four-year partnership with gym giants Planet Fitness in a deal worth R15m at Olympic House yesterday.

Athletes will be able to access excellent training facilities close to where they live for free, as part of the deal.

Sascoc has also signed a four-year deal with clothing brand Mr Price.

Sascoc president Barry Hendricks said it would cost them R47m to take Team SA to the Olympics. The budget required to take the Paralympic team to the Paralympic Games is R18m. He said they had engaged the national lottery and the department of sport in their fundraising drive.

“We are excited and proud to be associated with another national brand, Planet Fitness SA. The deal ... enables all the athletes in [Team] SA to attend the Planet Fitness gyms countrywide free of charge.

“The 86 national federations of Sascoc, board and staff will gym for free. The national athletes, provincial and regional athletes and local athletes that do not form part of the 260 Team SA athletes will get a discounted rate across the country,” said Hendricks yesterday.

“We have four months to go but we are working closely with the government and the National Lotteries Commission, who usually provided added funding, but our goal is to raise the money ourselves. We don't want to be a burden and we call on companies to come on board.”

Hendricks said Team SA does not have a medals target for the Olympics in Japan.

Having met with International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach, he also confirmed that there would be no foreign fans and guests attending the Tokyo Games.

“There won't be foreign spectators in Japan. We respect the decision of the Japanese government and we will work with them in terms of vaccinations for our athletes.”