{"id":50576,"date":"2024-04-15T14:32:02","date_gmt":"2024-04-15T14:32:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/?p=50576"},"modified":"2024-04-15T14:32:02","modified_gmt":"2024-04-15T14:32:02","slug":"sheffield-paralympians-having-to-ask-for-donations-to-compete-for-national-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/2024\/04\/15\/sheffield-paralympians-having-to-ask-for-donations-to-compete-for-national-team\/","title":{"rendered":"Sheffield Paralympians having to ask for donations to compete for national team"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sheffield Paralympians and Athletes of Para-Ice Hockey have said they need to raise their own funds to be able to compete for the UK in National Competitions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Para-Ice Hockey is a worldwide sport that gets little recognition on the world stage in terms of viewership, and is a struggling sport in the UK, but is community driven and unfortunately a self-funded sport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This means that all equipment, gear and the other necessities required have to be paid by the player, even on the National Paralympics Team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul Brown, of the Sheffield SteelKings and of Team GB, said: \u201cIt’s one of those sports that’s absolutely fantastic cause no matter where your background is, it’s got something for you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team GB’s para-ice hockey team won the 2023 nationals play offs and Great Britain will play in the next IPC Pool-B Tournament, which will take place in Norway this April.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Mr Brown said to compete for his country will can cost each player up to \u00a32,000. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said: \u201cIf there wasn’t any donations, the sport would die.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This is due to the lack of funding in the sport as he said \u2018nothing in the English system is set aside for GB Para-Ice Hockey\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chairwoman of Para-Ice Hockey Megan McEvoy said: \u201cAthletes are self funded in that it is their responsibility to pay for everything be that through fundraising, personal sponsors, grants from charities or simply out of pocket.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Due to the nature of training and camps for Team GB, it costs a further \u00a3500 per month to attend these and the costs are not funded or substituted to help the players.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is not the case for the rest of the world in Para-Ice Hockey. Many countries actively receive funding and salaries for competing at the national level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Para-Ice Hockey fan Bailey Astle said: \u201cThe sport is so small and community driven, that most games are free entry, just because that little bit of exposure to the sport is crucial.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These issues within Paralympics GB, partnered with the disabilities these players face, mean a lot of the players are unemployed and in debt due to the sport they love and competing at the national level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paralympics GB has been contacted for comment but has not yet responded. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The GoFundMe is linked here<\/a> to donate to the cause.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sheffield Paralympians and Athletes of Para-Ice Hockey have said they need to raise their own funds to be able to compete for the UK in National Competitions. Para-Ice Hockey is a worldwide sport that gets little recognition on the world stage in terms of viewership, and is a struggling sport in the UK, but is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":50577,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[191,5,6],"tags":[135,73,397],"class_list":["post-50576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-charity","category-news","category-sport","tag-sheffieldnews","tag-charity","tag-paralympics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50576"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50576\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50637,"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50576\/revisions\/50637"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}