Irish athletes look for funding for the Rio Olympics in 2016

As anyone who follows Irish athletics will know, funding for individual athletes is always an issue. Every year, the Irish Sports Council give out grants but only the very top international athletes like Rob Heffernan can hope to get the maximum amount. For younger up and coming athletes, their grants, if any, are a lot smaller and money is always an issue. They have the dilemma of trying to do the training required to reach an international standard and still be able to support themselves.

An interesting development on the Internet in the last year or two has been the use of sites like Kickstarter whereby people are asked to fund various business ideas and projects. The concept is called 'crowd sourcing'.

With those two facts in mind, some of Ireland's up and coming stars are now looking for funding for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Brother and sister Thomas and Jessie Barr from Waterford are top Irish hurdlers. Thomas put in some great performances in 2013 and came within five one-hundredths of a second of equaling the Irish 400m hurdles record. Jessie is the second fastest woman on the Irish all time list for the 400m hurdles.

This is their fundraising video...

This is the Barr's fundraising page.

Sarah Lavin from Limerick is just 19 years old and is already the 3rd fastest woman in the 100m hurdles on the Irish all time list.

This is her fundraising video...

This is Sarah's fundraising page.