Gold-Medal-Winning BMX Rider Had To Crowd Fund Her Way to Tokyo After UK Sports Decided to Fund Only Male Riders

Beth Shriever is Team GB’s BMX gold medalist that rised to the top of her career following her extraordinary journey to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. For those of you who don’t know, the Britton was forced to raise more than £50,000 to get to the Olympics!
The 22-year-old started her sport on a used bike a few years ago, and she’s now a gold medalist.

Back in 2019, she left the GB setup to go solo and aimed to raise £50,000 on her own after Team GB decided to only fund male riders. In order to raise the money, she worked as a teaching assistant in a nursery.

On top of the financial struggles to get to the Olympics, Shriever had also suffered numerous horrific injuries. She broke the same wrist three times, and she also suffered a tibia and fibula fractures.

Following her win, she had an interview in which she said that it felt very emotional and she still couldn’t believe that she had won.

‘It’s a bit mad, I haven’t even spoken to my family yet. I can’t wait to speak to all them and see how they’re feeling. I saw them at the end there getting all emotional and it’s just amazing, I can’t believe it.
I had nothing left at the end. I left it all on the track. Right now, it feels like I’m floating around. I’ve done a lot of work with my psychologist to be prepared for this because I did struggle a few years ago with my head. I’ve got a great thing going with him and without him I probably wouldn’t be where I am today. When I was watching Kye get that silver I really had to hold that back because I was about to cry.’

What makes her win even more special is the fact that the UK Sport decideed to fund only male BMX riders following the Rio Olympics. So, she had to work as a teaching assistant and look for alternative ways to fund her training and trip to the Tokyo Olympics.

She also used crowdfunding to keep going before her sport was brought back on to the program of 2019, and the whole journey ended with Olympic gold!

Source: Daily Mail

The post Gold-Medal-Winning BMX Rider Had To Crowd Fund Her Way to Tokyo After UK Sports Decided to Fund Only Male Riders appeared first on Femalista.



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