Olympian Blogger: Wanted Nation To Compete For
Jonathan Phillips aged 33 has no particular sporting ability, but thanks to a bet with his mates he is on the lookout for a country to compete for in the 2012 London Olympics. He can’t compete for the UK as apparently the government doesn’t want another Eddie The Eagle embarrassing the nation in its moment of triumph.
He’s started up a blog to track his progress and he’s hoping to raise £1m for charity.
“So the plan is to find a country who will support me by giving me a place in their team. In return, some of the money I raise could go back into that nation.”
Phillips plans to raise the million through corporate sponsorship, while using his own money to buy the essentials needed to train for his chosen event.
“Some sports use very little equipment - a pair of running shoes and some shorts - although I may be in trouble if I find
myself needing to buy a yacht,” he admitted.
“At the moment, archery is favourite. The last time I picked up a bow was about 20 years ago, but in a small nation like
Monaco, there’s a chance that I’m already their best archer - and I can only get better in the next six years.”
This could get quite funny and I really hope he makes it.
More: BBC
Bookmark & Share
Loading ...
Comment by Mark_UK on 30 March 2006:
Heh well good luck to him, although I must say I actually admired Eddie the Eagle. We need more people to stand up and have a go in the UK, that at least might start a spate of competition that hopefully will encourage and motivate people to improve at any given sport. This country lacks funding and that is where the real problem lies, if you want to improve at a sport it is all about self funding and the problem that creates is people with money get their children trained rather than kids with real talent getting to improve on their skills.