- British long jumper Dan Bramble is to return to training after raising thousands of pounds through a crowdfunding campaign.
- Bramble took a job as a delivery driver after losing his funding during the pandemic.
British long jumper Dan Bramble will resume his training for next year's Tokyo Olympics thanks to donations on his gofundme page. More than £12,000 have been donated.
During the pandemic, Bramble lost his funding and was unable to train because local training facilities were closed, so he took a job as a delivery driver.
Almost £9,000 came from a single donor – clothing brand Gymshark. Sharing details of the donation on social media, Gymshark wrote, ‘We wanted to let you know that we saw your tweet and were super inspired by your story. We knew we had to help you achieve your dream in any way we could and thought we'd start by making a donation to your gofundme page, so you can quit delivering parcels and get back to delivering gold.’
Bramble, who is 30, took gold in this year's British Indoor Athletics Championships. He narrowly missed out on qualifying for the Rio Olympics in 2016 and is hoping to make the team for the rescheduled Tokyo Games. He said the money raised will allow him to focus on his goals.
Bramble said his work as a delivery driver helped keep him in shape while he couldn't train: ‘It improved my upper body strength actually. My lower back got a lot stronger from lifting all those boxes.’
A spokeswoman for Gymshark said, ‘We saw Daniel's story, realised we could help, so did. We are a UK brand. We back our own.’
