Brazil plans big spending to improve medal haul in 2016

 Brazil's athletes, who won the gold medal in the women's volleyball,
pose with Sao Paulo's  Governor  Geraldo Alkmin 

(Reuters) - The host nation of the next Olympics had a mixed outing in London and is hoping that a surge in spending on athletes and facilities will ensure it makes the top 10 medals table in 2016 on home soil in Rio de Janeiro.

Brazil won 17 medals in London, two more than its previous best in Beijing, finishing 22nd in the overall count.

However, officials were frustrated after Brazil managed only three golds and at the general shortage of medals in the swimming pool and on the athletics track.

The 2016 hosts have decided to focus more on individual events in a bid to win more medals in front of their own fans.

"Our goal is to get in the top 10 medals table and to do that we need to keep winning medals in the disciplines we've already won at and also win medals in new areas," said Marcos Vinicius Freire of the Brazilian Olympic Committee (COB).

"When you look at the top 10 countries, one of the things they all have in common is that they all win medals in at least 13 disciplines. We need to win medals in five, six or seven disciplines where we've never won medals in before."

Brazil has won medals in nine: volleyball, soccer, basketball, track and field, swimming, show jumping, sailing, judo and taekwondo. In London they won medals in most of those events, plus at a few new ones, such as gymnastics and boxing.

Freire said his team of 130 people, 22 of them former Olympic athletes and coaches, have identified another 10 disciplines where Brazil could make an impact.

To achieve that goal, Brazil will spend $700 million over the next four years on high performance athletes alone -- triple the amount in the run-up to the London games.

Much of the investment comes from lottery funding. Two percent of Brazil's federal lottery money -- 140 million reais ($70 million) last year -- goes to the COB with the rest coming from sponsors, companies, and federal, state and municipal authorities.

-  Reuters