Bournemouth Olympian Forced to Raise Funds to Compete

A student from Bournemouth who represents Great Britain in bobsledding is being forced to raise funds to compete this season due to a lack of funding for the sport.

20-year-old Rebecca Hannibal, who has represented Great Britain since she was 17, has had to create a GoFundMe to afford the expenses of competitions.

The Sports Management student has been competing since the summer of 2019 when she became a part of the Youth Olympic Games cohort. That same year she achieved a spot on the senior women’s team and had her international debut in Lillehammer, Norway that November.

“Everything is self-funded including accommodation, kit, sledge hire, track hire, van hire, competition fees and food,” said Miss Hannibal, who went on to explain that on average, one of the five competitions per year costs her £2000-3000.

“Being a student trying to find this volume of money is very challenging, the GoFundMe will relieve some of the financial pressure”. Said Hannibal, who has also turned to corporate sponsorships to help her continue with the British team.

Funding for Bobsledding has been very minimal since the 2018 Olympic games. The British Bobsleigh and Skeleton Association state that funding has been reduced from around £4 million for the 2018 Olympics to £120,000 for 2022-23 season.

Although previously this lack of funding may have been due to results in the sport, recently Britain achieved a bronze medal in the 2014 Sochi Olympics and came 6th in the 2020 Olympic games.

These results meant that there is now £2 million allocated to British bobsleigh but this only goes towards the World Cup squads. This leaves other athletes such as Hannibal still having to self-fund.

“Hopefully these results will lead to an increased financial investment into the sport and the future of development for athletes such as myself,” said Hannibal. In the meantime, she hopes people will donate to her cause so she can continue to perform at this a high level.

Zoe from the Staff at Bournemouth University Sport who deals with many athletes said “No, I don’t think it’s fair, it shouldn’t be funded by them [athletes representing Great Britain]”.

Lack of funding into Bobsledding means that sportspersons with less financial stability turn to methods, like Hannibal, such as GoFundMe, to continue in the sport.