Andrew Bree to get £25K damages over car crash that ended his London 2012 dreams

The payout to Andrew Bree forms part of a settlement reached in his compensation claim at the High Court in Belfast.

The 200m breaststroke swimmer, from County Down, represented Ireland at the 2000 and 2008 Olympics.

He was in a road accident on Belfast’s Ravenhill Road in October 2010.

Three months after sustaining head, back and leg injuries, he returned to training in the United States, but failed in his efforts to make the qualifying time for a third Olympic Games.

Funding

Mr Bree sued the other motorist’s insurers for the cuts to his funding grants when he failed to qualify.

With liability not contested, the court action was centred on the level of any pay-out to be awarded.

The court heard that in the year up to the accident the swimmer received more than £15,000 from Sport NI.

He had also been allocated 12,000 euros (£8,600) from the Irish Sports Council for each of the three preceding years.

In his evidence, the swimmer said that before the collision he had been confident of making the qualifying time for the London Olympics.

After the accident he said he felt “isolated” and his confidence was “jolted”.

“I spent more energy, more thoughts concentrating on trying to get back to that instead of focusing on the Olympics and my goal for that,” he said.

Read BBC

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