How crowdfunding helped the South African team to participate compete at Tokyo Olympics

It may seem that all countries finance their sports teams and take all possible steps to provide their athletes with the best opportunities. However, the South African government and the sports authority have not done enough for the men’s hockey team. In the story that came to light, it was discovered that the team was led by a crowdfunding campaign, as they did not have enough money to get to Tokyo. Their coach, Garrett Ewing, offered several posts, and this was the first call for funding for the team.

The money that was paid was done so through a crowdfunding campaign organised by Matchkit. The company helped give the players and coaches a digital profile which helped spread the word about crowdfunding. This lead to the target being set of around 3 million rand(around 2 crores) that was subsequently met. The South African sports association has not given them money to pay for their equipment and this has led them to take this initiative up out of desperation.

The crowdfunding campaign was titled SA Hockey’s Tokyo Olympic dream’ and was done over the past year or so. It garnered funding from all across the world as the rallying cry was made to recognise Hockey as well and not just Rugby and cricket. Mike Sharman has also been active in this regard and was one of the frontrunners to get South Africa to the Olympics by ensuring there was adequate information put out to get the necessary funds.