Thank you for looking at my fundraising page, and for considering being part of my journey to Rio in 2016. My target is to raise £3,000. This will allow me to continue training as a professional athlete, with the goal of representing Great Britain at The Olympics. To achieve this, this will cost around £18,000 a year.

Your help in being part of this journey is so valuable, thank you.

If you want to get to know me better and see first hand my dedication to my sport, I regularly post videos to my YouTube channel. I do this to help others learn about weightlifting and the journey of a young full time athlete.  www.youtube.com/sonnywebsterGB

About Me

I am currently 20 years old. I train full time in Bristol working closely with my coach, Andy Sutor. I am currently studying a foundation degree in Sports Performance at Bath University whilst undergoing a full time training programme consisting of 9 sessions a week. These session combined usually last around 5 hours a day, working to improve my strength and technique. I am a keen coach myself applying all the knowledge I have gathered from my academic studies and personal experience. I regularly deliver seminars and coaching sessions to increase awareness and remove some of the negative stigma surrounding the sport I am so passionate about.

However, since the sudden loss of all funding to mens Weightlifting, which happened shortly after I became the first British man to win the European Junior Bronze Medal in 2013, I had to increase my coaching hours substantially, which risks hindering time spent developing as an athlete.

This impacts on my recovery and ability to prepare, as the lack of funding prevents important training camp travel, accommodation, specialist physio treatment, which I believe are essential elements to me getting on that plane to Rio.

My Goal

I am training to represent Great Britain at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.

The Road to Rio is made up of specific qualification events and I need to be at my peak in order to hit the totals required. These are all held internationally.

I am at the top of my game here in the UK, and one of the struggles I have is finding training partners who push me further as a competitor due to the nature of British Weightlifting not having a high performance centre. I intend to train at the Olympic Training Centre in Colorado Springs, USA in 2015 in order to provide the competitive atmosphere that I require going into the first qualification event in 2015, the World Championships, Houston . The final opportunity for me to qualify will be at the Europeans 2016. In order for me to qualify outright, I need to finish top 12^th in the world at that time to guarantee my spot on the plane to Rio.

Based on my rate of progress in the past couple of years, this goal is within reach with the right support. 

I am determined to not let the funding gap affect my chances of making the team for the Olympic Games, Rio 2016.  With the right support, I will continue to do everything in my power to be on that plane to Rio.