Gina Rinehart’s company announced as sponsor of Australian Olympic Team

Gina Rinehart's Hancock Prospecting has been announced as a sponsor for the Australian Olympic Team through to 2026.

The Australian Olympic Committee announced the partnership on Friday morning, saying it will encompass the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games, Paris 2024 Summer Olympics, and the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics in February 2026.

The mining giant will also "support" Australian Teams to Youth Olympic Games in Gangwon 2024 and in Dakar 2026, the Pacific Games in 2023.

Rinehart, Hancock Prospecting's executive chair, has previously been criticised for warning against climate change "propaganda" in education. In a speech last year she said she said had once helped to convince students climate change was not human-induced, by organising a talk at a school by climate skeptic Lord Christopher Monckton and told students to "do their own independent research" on "which comes first - global warming, or an increase in carbon?". She's also warned that a move towards reducing emissions would cost billions in taxpayer money.

Rinehart is quoted in the statement as saying her company was "proud" to support the Australian teams, adding that she believed athlete's "work, dedication, focus and self-discipline" were important to "succeed in life and business".

"We are delighted to take the next step in our long-term support of Australia's best athletes and become an official Australian Olympic Committee partner, an organisation admirably independent of Government funding and aligned to our values at the Hancock Group," she said.

"We are so proud to help our great Olympians who are such inspirations, through their hard work, most do not really know how hard they work, dedication, focus and self-discipline, as they endeavour to represent our country to the best of their ability.