Because of the complete absence of, or a deficit in, State funding for our top athletes, many need to find alternative sources of income if they wish to compete at Olympic level, writes Una McCaffrey

Olympic Games are the stuff of dreams: national anthems played loud for the world to hear and athletes swelling with pride as their countrymen swoon in admiration.

The Republic narrowly missed out on an opportunity to engage in a love-in such as this just a few weeks ago, when Mr Clifton Wrottesley, our latest Olympic hero, took fourth place in the little-known Skeleton event in Salt Lake City.

Even without a medal, there was still a fair bit of admiration, especially since no Irish competitor had ever before come close to a podium place in the Winter Olympics.

And when the initial excitement of the almost-win had faded away, there was still much left in the Wrottesley story to capture the Irish imagination.

Aside from the athlete's noble heritage (he is listed in Debrett's Peerage), the majority of this lingering attention related to that old reliable: money.

It emerged that Mr Wrottesley had received no funding from the Irish Sports Council, apart from travelling expenses to pay for his passage to Utah.

The indignation that surrounded this news was strong. The Minister for Sport, Dr Jim McDaid, and the Irish Sports Council have been at the centre of the criticism - censure so strong that the row is still rumbling.

The fact is that funding for Irish Olympic athletes is by no means a straightforward issue. While official funding for mainstream sports is generally available through the aforementioned Sports Council, this does not, as evidenced in Salt Lake, cover everyone. And even when athletes do qualify for the funding, it is unlikely to be sufficient to cover all of their expenses.

The net effect of this situation is that many athletes need to find alternative sources of income if they wish to compete at Olympic level.

This money can come from a variety of sources, including the athlete's own pocket, as in the case of Mr Wrottesley. The London-based fund manager estimates that the two-year run up to the Olympics in Salt Lake cost him about €40,000 of his own money.

"It burnt a big hole in my pocket and I couldn't afford it," he says. "I basically said, sod it. I didn't even dare to put a budget together."

Before the Olympics, Mr Wrottesley had attempted to get some corporate sponsors on board to supplement his income but, probably due to the lack of recognition that the skeleton receives, he drew "a resounding blank".

Luck was closer to hand when it came to relatives, however: an uncle who owns a Bordeaux vineyard came up with an imaginative way of raising thousands for the Olympic hopeful.

"He put together a scheme whereby we sold commemorative cases of wine," says Mr Wrottesley. "From every box we sold, we got three or four euros."

This initiative raised an additional €40,000 or so, mainly through sales in the Republic.

Since the Olympics, Mr Wrottesley has "fielded a couple of calls" from potential sponsors but has, as yet, signed no deals. He is happy to announce however that he has been presented with a cheque for €10,000 by the Olympic Council of Ireland since his return: usually this generosity is reserved for medal-winners but an exception was made for the winter sportsman.

This €10,000 has subsequently been matched by a private individual, leaving Mr Wrottesley in a slightly more comfortable position but still not secure in a long-term sense. He aims to compete in the next Winter Games and, to do so, will need to get more money on board.

While he does not expect to be entirely funded by the Sports Council, Mr Wrottesley would like to see the body adopt a more imaginative approach to the issue, if only to encourage potential in future athletes.

"I would quite like to see them being more pro-active rather than reactive so that they might spot talent ahead of the curve. So many people are turned away from competitive sport because there's no funding in place."

This can be true even for sports that do qualify for Sports Council grants, according to Olympic veteran Mr Terry McHugh. Mr McHugh has competed for Ireland at four Summer Olympics and two Winter Olympics, combining the javelin with the bobsleigh.

He believes that Olympic competition can be "terribly unattractive" for young athletes at the moment, largely because of financial struggles. A good athlete, he suggests, may find a sport such as rugby more appealing than an Olympic discipline because "at least they can make a living".

Mr McHugh pays tribute to the Sports Council's carding scheme for elite athletes (see separate stories) but says that more needs to be done on the support front, such as providing full-time athletes with the same social-welfare opportunities as the long-term unemployed, for example. He also argues that an agency should be established to facilitate athletes seeking sponsorship, simply so that competitors would have more time to concentrate on sport.

"If a person has a talent, it's not sufficient - you also have to have motivation," says Mr McHugh. "If you have a person who has talent and motivation but not funding, they will be restricted."