Thank you for taking the time to look at my campaign. It means a lot knowing people are interested in what I’m trying to accomplish and are willing to support me along my journey.

About Me

My name is Gregg Varey. I’m a 26-year-old Judoka competing for Great Britain at U66kg. My journey into the Judo world started at the age of 6 when I was taken to my first lesson and I have never looked back since.

Originally from Bishops Stortford in Hertfordshire, I moved to the University of Bath in 2006 to study Sports Performance. This enabled me to take my Judo career to the next level by training full time at Team Bath’s high performance judo centre. After finishing university, I made the decision to stay in Bath and continue to train full time.

I’m now based in Bristol (as I can’t afford to live in bath) but still train at the university as an unfunded athlete. I have to balance my time between training and work in order to fund, not only international judo events, but also for daily living.

Why I Need Your Support

I’m an unfunded athlete aiming to qualify for the 2016 Rio Olympic Games. In order to achieve this I need to compete at World Cups and Grand Prix’s throughout Europe and the World to gain valuable World Ranking points and Olympic Qualification points.

Despite numerous national and international results, I am still unsupported like many Judoka’s in Great Britain, and therefore have to fund all of my competitions, training costs, travel expenses and, of course, living costs. I currently work 32 hours a week and train on average 22-24 hours a week. This means lots of early morning combined with late evenings!

The average competition in Europe costs around £300-£600 to attend with the price of non EU competitions costing between £500-£1200. As you can imagine, paying out my monthly living costs I’m left with very little money to go towards tournaments. This leaves me in a tough situation as to pay for events and living costs I would have to work over 40 hours a week, which would then limit the amount of time I can train. Consequently, this would really impact my performance. The more events I can attend over the next 15 months, the greater my chances of Olympic Qualification.

Any support given will enable me to fund the events I need to attend, help towards travel expenses and training costs. Ultimately any support will help me attain my dreams of competing and medalling at the Olympic Games.

Amount Needed

To fund all of the tournaments I need to attend over the next 15 months in order to gain qualification for the Games, it will cost in excess of £12,000. However, any financial help would be a huge benefit and massively appreciated. My target is to raise £3,500 as this will cover my upcoming World Cup, Grand Prix’s and an international training camp.

If you feel you can provide additional support then please email me at [email protected]

Thank you once again for taking the time to read my campaign. You can follow my journey to Rio 2016 on Twitter and Instagram @gvarey.