“I will go to the Olympics in the future”, a teenage Hannah Snellgrove wrote in her diary.
However it’s only now, with three Video games having handed since she emerged as a significant expertise, that the 33-year-old British sailor from Hampshire is closing in on that aim.
In that point, she has twice missed out on Olympic choice, been dropped from the British crew altogether, and funded her crusing by working as a journalist and busking.
It’s, she admits, “a really scenic route”.
Snellgrove suffered setbacks early on in her life, lacking out on a few years of each crusing and schooling whereas recovering from the debilitating Epstein Barr Virus.
However with London 2012 on the horizon, she was a part of the British Crusing Crew and in with an opportunity of creating the Video games within the Laser Radial class (now often known as the ILCA 6).
It wasn’t to be. Regardless of deferring her college research for a 12 months to focus on qualifying, she in the end missed out on a spot to team-mate Alison Younger.
Then, simply weeks after representing Crew GB on the 2014 Crusing World Championships, she was abruptly dropped from the British set-up.
“Being dropped was a really traumatic expertise,” Hannah instructed BBC Sport. “In the end it’s folks telling you you are not ok, and I undoubtedly believed that myself for a very long time.”
Not solely was it a bitter private blow, it additionally meant a lack of funding and training.
For some time she burned by her financial savings to pay for issues which had beforehand been supplied, and shortly needed to cease crusing competitively.
Her likelihood for a brand new route got here through her native newspaper, the place a few weeks’ work expertise turned a contract profession.
“I did the whole lot from the leisure pages to obituaries,” she says.
“I truly actually loved obituaries; I discovered it very humbling that you’d study somebody and write up about their life.”
On the similar time, she began studying to play the guitar.
“Music saved me I feel,” she displays now on how she coped emotionally with being dropped.
“I realised that I missed music, and determined I’d train myself guitar so I may go and play music and sing in pubs and issues.
“I met an exquisite group of people that turned superb pals, and it introduced me again to life.”
The odd gig and a few busking on the weekend helped herald a little bit money, however performing wasn’t all the time straightforward.
“I finished taking part in music as a result of I received so nervous that it wasn’t pleasant. So I decided: ‘you’re keen on taking part in music, you could discover a solution to recover from the nerves and simply take pleasure in it’.
“It is nearly like placing a face on and never interested by folks watching.”
A lesson she would later apply on the water.
By this time Rio 2016 had come and gone, however the craving for competitors was nonetheless there and in 2017, she independently entered each the European and World Championships.
Her performances earned her the encouragement of the then-British Laser Radial coach, John Bertrand.
“He mentioned ‘I imagine in you, and I feel you need to put collectively a self-funded marketing campaign. I will assist’.”
They crowdfunded a brand new boat, elevating £7,000 in simply three weeks, discovered new sponsors and constructed a marketing campaign for the 2018 World Championships in Denmark.
Snellgrove was nonetheless exterior the British crew. She remembers being interviewed on tv and worrying what to put on; she could not use British package.
Extra importantly she was nonetheless with out the teaching assist which comes with a nationwide set-up, so she pooled sources with some New Zealanders.
“I nonetheless had pals in British Crusing, and naturally I may speak to them, nevertheless it was a bit bizarre,” she says now.
The trouble labored, as a result of the selectors determined it was time to convey her again.
“It felt very validating,” she says.
“I feel in hindsight [being dropped] was a wholesome factor. It makes you respect that doing what you’re keen on is a really privileged factor. Generally it is good to inform your self it is only a boat race!”
Again on the crew, Snellgrove once more needed to face Olympic disappointment, as she narrowly missed out to Younger once more on choice for Tokyo 2020.
However now heading in the direction of Paris 2024, and with Younger retired, she is the clear British primary and certified the nation a spot on the Video games with a robust efficiency on the World Championships within the Hague.
There may be nonetheless a range resolution to be made and Snellgrove refuses to take something as a right, however does categorical what it could imply to lastly compete at an Olympic regatta for Crew GB.
“It could be a large honour, and a fulfilment of loads of time, effort and onerous work,” she mentioned. “And I do not simply imply mine, I imply lots of people who’ve supported me over time as nicely.”
