UK imports top athletes to win 2012 Gold

Champion athletes from eastern Europe are being imported to compete for Great Britain at the London Olympics, the Standard can reveal.

The so-called "foreign legion" - rejected by their own nations - will help achieve the target of finishing fourth in the 2012 Games medal table.

A Standard investigation has found that several world-class wrestlers from the Ukraine and Bulgaria - among the sport's leading nations - have been recruited by two Ukrainian coaches working for the Great Britain team.

They officially perform the role of "sparring partners" to home-grown wrestlers but make no secret of their desire to switch allegiances and compete for the host nation.

They receive grants from a dedicated 2012 Lottery fund to train twice a day with the British team at its base in Salford, near Manchester. Each of the potential Olympians have been granted work visas and arrived ahead of last year's deadline potentially to qualify for a British passport on the basis of five years' residency. As many as five wrestlers, including two former European junior champions, hope to make the 11-strong British team for 2012. In contrast, Team GB will struggle to send a single wrestler to this summer's Beijing Games.

Among the 2012 hopefuls are Yana Stadnik and Olga Butkevich - European junior champions who competed for Ukraine in 2005 and 2006 respectively.

They would struggle to make the Ukrainian Olympics team as they face competition in their weight categories from the Olympic gold medallist and world junior champion.

Other hopefuls are Bulgarian Krasomir Krastonov and Oleg Druzhynets. Another, Miroslav Dykan, who arrived in Britain in 2003 and has married an English woman, hopes to be given a passport this month. British Wrestling faces a recruitment crisis particularly in the women's sport, which only made its Olympic debut at the 2004 Athens Games.

Malcolm Morley, chairman of British Wrestling, said the wrestlers had been recruited primarily as training partners. He said: "I've not signed them up because I want them to be here in five years (2012).

"But if they stop here for five years they are eligible. If they want to stay here I am very pleased, the more the merrier. If a person has a British passport it doesn't matter if he is Ukrainian, Iranian or what the hell he is. If he's got a British passport he is eligible to compete for Britain. Why should he be denied?"

Ms Stadnik said: "My dream is to get to the London Olympics - every sportswoman wants this."

A spokesman for the British Olympic Association said: "The sparring partners are here so that they can give the best chance to British athletes to raise their standards."