The Australian talent scout brought to Britain by Bill Sweetenham to help root out talent for British Swimming, has unearthed 52 'giants' for sporting selection across a number of sports in the lead-up to London 2012.

After moving on from British Swimming to work with UK Sport, Chelsea Warr launched a 'Sporting Giants' programme to help Britain find the right raw material for sporting success.

Twelve months after Sir Steve Redgrave, five times Olympic rowing champion, gave the call to arms in Trafalgar Square for tall people to come forward to try out as 'Sporting Giants' and claim a place in London 2012, UK Sport and the English Institute of Sport announced that 34 rowers, 11 handball players and seven volleyball players have been successfully integrated into British squads.

They come from the 3,854 applicants who replied to the launch for potential sleeping giants to apply for sport-specific testing if they were over 6ft 3in (men) and 5ft 11in (women), aged between 16-25 and had good, all-round athletic ability.

Sir Steve said: 'I am delighted and astounded that so many members of the British public came forward with the ambition of competing for GB at the London 2012 Olympics.'Sporting Giants' was about finding tall people who had the right characteristics to become stars of the future. It did that in bucket loads and some of the hidden talent that has emerged is incredible.'

One of the 3,854 hopefuls was Mancunian Stuart Campbell, 25, who 12 months ago was helping a friend with bricklaying duties when his father telephoned after hearing Sir Steve launch the project on the radio and suggested he should apply. 'I had never even seen a handball court before 'Sporting Giants', but now a year on I'm part of the British Handball Academy in Denmark with a chance of representing Great Britain at the Olympic Games, which would be a dream come true if I'd ever allowed myself to dream it in the first place,' said Campbell.

Warr, the architect of 'Sporting Giants', said that the programme 'demonstrated the great desire amongst young British sportsmen and women to become Olympic athletes as well as the hidden talent that exists out there. We have been able to give a small number of them a key that may well unlock a door to an amazing Olympic journey. All those that have made it to this stage have the right ingredients to be thoroughbreds although, as with all Olympic athletes, a huge amount of hard work lies in wait for all of them and ultimately there can be no guarantees.'

Indeed not. Hopefully some of the giants will head to the sprint pool, where Britain's coaches wait impatiently for the right raw material to wander through the door.