South west London’s young athletes embarking on the road to Rio 2016 are being given a helping hand by The GLL Sport Foundation.
The nationwide foundation was launched in 2008 with the support of former Olympic gold medalist Sally Gunnell, with Tom Daley also playing a prominent role in promoting it in the last year.
Since then they have provided support for more than 6,500 athletes across 95 sports, totaling £3.8 million.
Ben Quilter, who won judo bronze at the London 2012 Paralympic Games, is a GLL Foundation ambassador and works with disability sports development around London to help young disabled people get into sport.
The 33-year-old said: “If they can be inspired by some of the stories that me and some of the other ambassadors and supported athletes can tell, it will give more opportunity for people to get involved in the sport.”
Among those to benefit from the Foundation’s help are Kensington-based Chloe Spiteri and Lambeth weightlifter Liem Bui-Le.
Spiteri has been involved in freestyle wrestling for seven years, but only started training full-time three years ago.
But the 25-year-old is already the British senior champion and represented Team England at the Commonwealth Games last summer, where she came fourth in the women’s 63kg event after funding from the Foundation.
She said: “I knew the road to the Commonwealth Games was going to be hard, currently UK Sport doesn’t achieve much government funding, so I really need all that financial help to get in to all the vital competitions.”
Bui-Le, 21, is a member of the Crystal Palace weightlifting club and was selected to receive funding from a £12,700 pot along with 13 other weightlifters in conjunction with British weightlifting’s world-class performance programme.
He has been sponsored by the foundation for two years, and was grateful for the help they have provided him.
He said: “The GLL has helped me to be able to train and study at the same time without having to look for a part-time job.”
For more information on the Foundation, visit www.gllsportfoundation.org
