This 22-Year-Old BMX Gold Medalist Had To Crowdfund Her Olympics Bid After Her Funding Was Cut To Support Male Riders
Olympic athletes are going through what, for others, would seem like eternal suffering because they chose doing sports as a career path and it’s one that is not easy to go through. It requires a lot of physical endurance as well as mental. And of course, you have to have money to be able to use equipment, train and be able to compete in competitions.
But even lack of funds couldn’t stop the British BMX racer Bethany Shriever from going to the Olympics. The United Kingdom stopped funding the female BMX racers to put the money into preparing the male team, but Bethany found a solution and now she has a gold medal around her neck.
British BMX racer Bethany Shriever had to go to the Olympics on her own funds as the UK government did not spare finances for the female team
Image credits: bethanyshriever
Bethany Shriever is a 22-year-old British BMX racer who was invited to join the Olympic cycling squad. The problem is that preparing for the Olympics is very expensive and without government funding, this task is quite complicated.
After the 2016 Olympics, when none of the female riders qualified for the Games, the United Kingdom decided that the female riders would not be supported financially for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and that money would be invested only into the male team.
Image credits: bethanyshriever
She launched a crowdfunding page and managed to collect the amount of money she needed to go to Tokyo
Image credits: PA
But the Olympics is every athlete’s dream and is considered the peak of their career, so Bethany saw a solution. She calculated how much it would cost to go to Tokyo to compete and launched a crowdfunding page back in 2019. Her parents helped her as much as they could and what is more, she worked as a teaching assistant in a nursery to reach the goal of collecting £50,000 ($70,000) needed to depart to Japan.
What makes this story even more impressive is that it wasn’t the only complication Bethany had to overcome. She has broken the same wrist three times and she had to recover from a tibia and fibula fracture that even needed insertion of metal plates into her leg. But she persevered and now she is an Olympic champion.
Image credits: AP
And then she won the gold medal, proving that every difficulty can be overcome
Image credits: AP
She beat the two-time Olympic gold medal winner, Colombian Mariana Pajon, who was actually her idol. And now Bethany herself became an inspiration to many as she and her teammate Kye Whyte are Britain’s first BMX medalists.
Kye Whyte won a silver medal just ten minutes earlier and he told BBC, “I’m more happy for her than I am for me. That girl puts in some serious serious graft.”
Image credits: Reuters
It is a big win as she earned the first medal from BMX sports in British history
Image credits: PA
Bethany told Sky News that she couldn’t completely comprehend what just happened: “It is still surreal. I haven’t had a chance to think about it, I haven’t had a chance to myself since the race. I’m over the moon.”
It is truly quite surreal knowing the circumstances and it was a close finish—Bethany won by just 0.09sec. And she can be extra proud as she got there all by herself and the medal is certainly deserved.
People loved everything about Bethany’s story and felt that she very much deserved the win
The decision was made based on competition results, with the male team - at the time - looking more likely to pick up medals. Without an infinite pot of money, unfortunately, these are the kinds of tough decisions that need to be made. This article fails to mention that once Bethany's talent was recognised by the head of British Cycling, he persuaded UK Sport to reallocate funding and she was brought back into the team.
She has almost the same story with our Hidilyn Diaz(weight lifting) . The Ph Govt was not able to support her financially. So she trained with water jugs and transferred to another country. She was even accused of destabilizing the gov't. And now that they are both gold medalists. Politicians are quick to recognize them.
Out Of the 376 athletes selected for the Olympics, Team GB took 201 female and 175 male athletes. In 2 of the new sports introduced sport climbing and skateboarding we only have female representation. Bethany's funding cut was clearly ridiculous but as already mentioned UK sport did reallocate her funding. The way lottery funding is allocated is brutal but claiming its sexist is a stretch.
It's not deliberately sexist, but the current UK funding model has a greater negative impact on female participants in traditionally male-dominated sports. The impact is less felt in "new" Olympic sports where participants are starting on a more equal basis. The problem with the funding model is it often 'traps' female teams in a secondary position, because they don't get the money to DEVELOP. This is a problem across all UK sports, not just an Olympic issue. Women's football, for example, attracts a tenth of the revenue of the men's game. It also attracts less than 30 percent of the media coverage that the men's game gets too. Funding is the key to securing equity for female participation in many sports and the current UK Olympic model is at best unhelpful, and at worst, actually a barrier to progress.
Load More Replies...They cut mens mountain bike funding at the same time they cut women's BMX funding. They decide where to put their funding on the basis of the best chance of winning medals, but the lead time for it can mean rising stars might miss out on funding if they exceed early expectations.
https://news.sky.com/story/tokyo-olympics-lottery-money-and-the-medal-dream-how-team-gb-is-funded-12367961. Look I'm not trying to stir the pot here, but this article pretty much explains the whole thing. UK sport throws the most money at who they think will have the best chance at winning a medal (male OR female). Since the women's bmx team did not even qualify for the Rio Olympics the money went to the men (and to other sports that included women). This is the same reasoning for why they cut funding to men's mountain biking. The story also leaves out the fact that UK sport ultimately DID wind up funding her. I am all for women's equality and rights, but please let's present the story in the correct context and not bend it to fit an agenda. This is a perfect example of purposely misinforming people to fuel a reaction. Congrats to her and her well deserved medal.
Spot on. I have a theory at the moment that BP has some affiliation with the Daily Mail, (BP articles appear regularly in the Mail) where they are posting half stories and the editorial is worded in such a way that makes people angry. This being the classic click bait article men oppressing women while deliberately leaving out a huge chunk of relevant info to "encourage" debate and likes.
Load More Replies...Ashamed of my government that has spent, no wasted, so much money on pointless crap and then doesn't support this lady.
No British female riders qualified for Rio 2016, the decision was made to fund the men as they were seen as having a chance of a medal. This article fails to mention that once Beth's talent was recognised by the head of British Cycling, he persuaded UK Sport to reallocate funding and she was brought back into the team.
Load More Replies...So long as money is allocated according to competition success, there is not much chance of DEVELOPING women's teams, which commonly are starting from a position of being secondary to men's. It's a funding trap that is holding many aspects of women's sport back. Money is necessary to encourage participation, and develop skills by paying for the best coaches, and indeed many other things that could take YEARS to be 'repaid' by success at international competitions.
How much money is in her country's annual budget? How much was spent remodeling the offices of politicians in her country last year? This is shameful. Such a wealthy nation should never, ever, ever choose between genders for funding of a sport. £50,000 is nothing to their national budget.
No British female riders qualified for Rio 2016, the decision was made to fund the men as they were seen as having a chance of a medal. This article fails to mention that once Beth's talent was recognised by the head of British Cycling, he persuaded UK Sport to reallocate funding and she was brought back into the team.
Load More Replies...This is a big problem in UK sport, where funding for training and development of the sport is set by the level of success the teams have in international competitions. Many women teams playing traditionally male sports start out secondary to men's, so they had less success at competitions... so they get less money... so remain less successful.... so get less money.... it's an inescapable circle.
Does anyone know what justification the UK made for not funding the female team?
This isn't a decision based on gender. They cut funding to men's mountain biking at the same time. It's based purely on where the UK would be most likely to win medals (granted, they don't always get it right though)
Load More Replies...She should not wear the union jack at all on the podium since they had no faith in her and give the Uk in general the middle finger. Men's team sucks! Who is wearing the gold
This decision was made.... in 2021??? Sorry but I would only have expected this in 1921, but that's my bad.
I don't know how many explanations are made, how clearly and in how much detail before people stop assuming and asserting that the funding decisions had absolutely NOTHING to do with sexism. Please, everybody . . . . . read above comments for clear explanations as to how these decisions are made. Also - for goodness sake - would people PLEASE stop blaming the U.K. Government? The Government had ZERO input into these decisions. Zero! These decisions are made by a separate body altogether and Boris ain't involved. If you want to know how UK sport is funded please check out https://www.uksport.gov.uk/our-work/investing-in-sport/current-funding-figures
Load More Replies...There are glaring errors in the story printed. This article fails to mention that once Beth's talent was recognised by the head of British Cycling, he persuaded UK Sport to reallocate funding and she was brought back into the team.
Load More Replies...The decision was made based on competition results, with the male team - at the time - looking more likely to pick up medals. Without an infinite pot of money, unfortunately, these are the kinds of tough decisions that need to be made. This article fails to mention that once Bethany's talent was recognised by the head of British Cycling, he persuaded UK Sport to reallocate funding and she was brought back into the team.
She has almost the same story with our Hidilyn Diaz(weight lifting) . The Ph Govt was not able to support her financially. So she trained with water jugs and transferred to another country. She was even accused of destabilizing the gov't. And now that they are both gold medalists. Politicians are quick to recognize them.
Out Of the 376 athletes selected for the Olympics, Team GB took 201 female and 175 male athletes. In 2 of the new sports introduced sport climbing and skateboarding we only have female representation. Bethany's funding cut was clearly ridiculous but as already mentioned UK sport did reallocate her funding. The way lottery funding is allocated is brutal but claiming its sexist is a stretch.
It's not deliberately sexist, but the current UK funding model has a greater negative impact on female participants in traditionally male-dominated sports. The impact is less felt in "new" Olympic sports where participants are starting on a more equal basis. The problem with the funding model is it often 'traps' female teams in a secondary position, because they don't get the money to DEVELOP. This is a problem across all UK sports, not just an Olympic issue. Women's football, for example, attracts a tenth of the revenue of the men's game. It also attracts less than 30 percent of the media coverage that the men's game gets too. Funding is the key to securing equity for female participation in many sports and the current UK Olympic model is at best unhelpful, and at worst, actually a barrier to progress.
Load More Replies...They cut mens mountain bike funding at the same time they cut women's BMX funding. They decide where to put their funding on the basis of the best chance of winning medals, but the lead time for it can mean rising stars might miss out on funding if they exceed early expectations.
https://news.sky.com/story/tokyo-olympics-lottery-money-and-the-medal-dream-how-team-gb-is-funded-12367961. Look I'm not trying to stir the pot here, but this article pretty much explains the whole thing. UK sport throws the most money at who they think will have the best chance at winning a medal (male OR female). Since the women's bmx team did not even qualify for the Rio Olympics the money went to the men (and to other sports that included women). This is the same reasoning for why they cut funding to men's mountain biking. The story also leaves out the fact that UK sport ultimately DID wind up funding her. I am all for women's equality and rights, but please let's present the story in the correct context and not bend it to fit an agenda. This is a perfect example of purposely misinforming people to fuel a reaction. Congrats to her and her well deserved medal.
Spot on. I have a theory at the moment that BP has some affiliation with the Daily Mail, (BP articles appear regularly in the Mail) where they are posting half stories and the editorial is worded in such a way that makes people angry. This being the classic click bait article men oppressing women while deliberately leaving out a huge chunk of relevant info to "encourage" debate and likes.
Load More Replies...Ashamed of my government that has spent, no wasted, so much money on pointless crap and then doesn't support this lady.
No British female riders qualified for Rio 2016, the decision was made to fund the men as they were seen as having a chance of a medal. This article fails to mention that once Beth's talent was recognised by the head of British Cycling, he persuaded UK Sport to reallocate funding and she was brought back into the team.
Load More Replies...So long as money is allocated according to competition success, there is not much chance of DEVELOPING women's teams, which commonly are starting from a position of being secondary to men's. It's a funding trap that is holding many aspects of women's sport back. Money is necessary to encourage participation, and develop skills by paying for the best coaches, and indeed many other things that could take YEARS to be 'repaid' by success at international competitions.
How much money is in her country's annual budget? How much was spent remodeling the offices of politicians in her country last year? This is shameful. Such a wealthy nation should never, ever, ever choose between genders for funding of a sport. £50,000 is nothing to their national budget.
No British female riders qualified for Rio 2016, the decision was made to fund the men as they were seen as having a chance of a medal. This article fails to mention that once Beth's talent was recognised by the head of British Cycling, he persuaded UK Sport to reallocate funding and she was brought back into the team.
Load More Replies...This is a big problem in UK sport, where funding for training and development of the sport is set by the level of success the teams have in international competitions. Many women teams playing traditionally male sports start out secondary to men's, so they had less success at competitions... so they get less money... so remain less successful.... so get less money.... it's an inescapable circle.
Does anyone know what justification the UK made for not funding the female team?
This isn't a decision based on gender. They cut funding to men's mountain biking at the same time. It's based purely on where the UK would be most likely to win medals (granted, they don't always get it right though)
Load More Replies...She should not wear the union jack at all on the podium since they had no faith in her and give the Uk in general the middle finger. Men's team sucks! Who is wearing the gold
This decision was made.... in 2021??? Sorry but I would only have expected this in 1921, but that's my bad.
I don't know how many explanations are made, how clearly and in how much detail before people stop assuming and asserting that the funding decisions had absolutely NOTHING to do with sexism. Please, everybody . . . . . read above comments for clear explanations as to how these decisions are made. Also - for goodness sake - would people PLEASE stop blaming the U.K. Government? The Government had ZERO input into these decisions. Zero! These decisions are made by a separate body altogether and Boris ain't involved. If you want to know how UK sport is funded please check out https://www.uksport.gov.uk/our-work/investing-in-sport/current-funding-figures
Load More Replies...There are glaring errors in the story printed. This article fails to mention that once Beth's talent was recognised by the head of British Cycling, he persuaded UK Sport to reallocate funding and she was brought back into the team.
Load More Replies...
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