These latest awards are expected to reach about 11,220 young athletes across Southern California and will support a number of disciplines, including basketball, soccer, swimming, volleyball, martial arts, track and field, cross country, canoeing and kayaking, softball, boxing and golf.

"These grants reflect LA84's ongoing commitment to ensure that as many children as possible are made life ready through sports," said Anita DeFrantz, President of the LA84 Foundation and member of the International Olympic Committee's ruling Executive COmmittee.

"Thirty years after the extremely successful 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, we're proud that the greatest legacy of those Olympics lives on in the young people participating in LA84-supported programmes.

"We look forward to continuing our partnerships with organisations that are truly enhancing lives of children through sports."

The Foundation has already invested more than $220 million (£139 million/€177 million) in youth sport since its inception in 1985, with $4.7 million (£2.9 million/€3.8 million) having been awarded this year alone.

A grant from the LA84 Foundation to Mt San Antonio Community College District has helped introduce more than 400,000 youngsters to athletics ©LA84 Foundation

The Mt San Antonio Community College District was awarded the largest grant to ensure the continuation of its Relays Youth Days Track and Field Programme, which has so far introduced approximately 420,000 young athletes to the sport of athletics.

THINK Together, a community-based non-profit that works to improve academic outcomes for youths living in underserved communities, also received a significant grant.

This financial support will help some 4,000 children in ongoing LA84-sponsored middle school sports programmes in several locations across Los Angeles and Riverside County, with many schools relying on THINK Together to provide after school sport for their students after state budget cuts.

The volleyball, basketball and indoor soccer leagues of the South Coast Area and the Santa Clarita Valley, the youth aquatics programmes in San Dieguito and the youth athletics programme in La Habra will also benefit from this round of grants.

Elsewhere, the Jurupa Valley Boxing Club received its first grant, totalling $5,050 (£3,199/€4,062), to help purchase equipment, secure licences for coaches and provide scholarships for youths, while a first time grant of $10,000 (£6,335/€8,046) to the Glendora Lassie League, a recreational fast pitch softball league for girls aged 7 to 17 years old, will provide new backstop pads and cage nets.

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