HI AGAIN!

I’M BACK… AND ONE STEP CLOSER TO BEIJING 2022 WINTER OLYMPICS!

Some of you may recognise my story from a couple of years ago when I first started my skeleton career. So, to those of you who are my previous crowdfunding supporters, THANK YOU and welcome back. For those of you who are newbies, HI and WELCOME to my page! Let me (re)introduce myself…

I’m Brogan, a 22-year-old skeleton athlete, currently competing for Great Britain in the Europa Cup Squad and living my dream of becoming an Olympian. I am currently in my fourth and final year at Loughborough University and I have just finished my third sliding season as a skeleton athlete, where I spent my first full year competing on the Europa Cup Circuit. Skeleton, as you may or may not know, is a downhill sliding sport that involves a single person laying headfirst on a sled, plummeting down an ice track! The aim of the sport is to get to the bottom of a track in the quickest time possible (over a number of runs), which means hitting speeds up to 90 mph with your chin centimetres from, sometimes on, the ice. Great Britain’s skeleton athletes have medalled at EVERY games since that the sport has featured. I aim to follow on from the likes of Shelley Rudman, Amy Williams and Lizzy Yarnold and win a medal for Team GB at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.

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For the past two years, I have been training for skeleton. Prior to skeleton, I was a heptathlete, specialising in 100m hurdles, and represented Great Britain at Junior Level. I came across skeleton through a Talent ID search named Power2Podium, shortly after the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics, and became 1 of 8 successful applicants from the thousands that originally applied. Since then, there has been no looking back!

My first full season racing was successful, and I have now graduated from the Talent programme onto the performance programme for skeleton… one step closer to my Olympic dream! I finished the season 4th overall in the Europa Cup standings, an agonising 1 point off third. My season has been very consistent in terms of race result – my best finish was 8th and my worst 12th, with 7 result in between the two. My highlight of the season has to be the privilege of being selected to race at the Junior World Championships in Sigulda, where I finished 9th and knocked over a second off my personal best from 4 months earlier!

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Two years ago, I was lucky enough to have a huge amount of support when I ran my first crowd funding campaign, so I am back again asking for your support to keep me on my journey, head first towards the Beijing 2022 winter Olympics.

As it stands, I have reached a crucial point in my career where I need to invest in equipment to take me to the next level and progress my development as a skeleton athlete. I currently loan a helmet from the programme and unfortunately it’s loan spell has come to an end to allow new and upcoming talent athletes the same opportunity I had. I will also need to purchase new different coloured visors for my helmet, to help limit the likelihood of me suffering from migraines from sliding due to eye strain. A new helmet and visors are going to cost approximately £400. I have also been sliding on runners (the two metal bars underneath my sled) that belong to the British Skeleton Association and as with the helmets, they need them back for the new and upcoming athletes. This means I will need to buy some runners in order to continue to train and compete against the world’s best. The intricate design and cut of the runners mean they are costly to buy, at approximately £500 a pair. The runners play a major part in sliding as they are the link between the ice and the sled. I am aiming to purchase two pairs of runners, as our coach has advised, so that I can have the necessary equipment to slide in different ice conditions – warm and cold ice!

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The support I received two years ago, allowed me to commit to skeleton and gave me the financial assistance I desperately needed for the running costs of my summer training camps in Bath (where the skeleton programme is based). Without that support I would not have had the success I have had so far – thank you to each and every one of you that pledged!

My passion for skeleton grows as I grow and develop as an athlete. With every experience, I will take a step closer to that Winter Olympic Games in 2022. I am more committed to skeleton than ever and I am excited to see what I can achieve in the next year (when I can invest my full time into skeleton, without having to counterbalance university work).

Thank you for taking the time to read my story. If you have any questions, or if you’d like to keep up to date with my success please check out my social media pages (my new Facebook skeleton page @BCSkeleton, or follow my twitter page @brogancrowley)! If you’d like to be a part of my journey, please share my story on this page or if and where possible, donate to this campaign.