“I’ll go to the Olympics sooner or later”, a teenage Hannah Snellgrove wrote in her diary.
However it is just now, with three Video games having handed since she emerged as a serious expertise, that the 33-year-old British sailor from Hampshire is closing in on that objective.
In that point, she has twice missed out on Olympic choice, been dropped from the British staff 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 referred to 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. “Finally it’s individuals telling you you are not ok, and I positively 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 means of her financial savings to pay for issues which had beforehand been offered, and shortly needed to cease crusing competitively.
Her probability for a brand new route got here by way of her native newspaper, the place a few weeks’ work expertise turned a contract profession.
“I did all the things from the leisure pages to obituaries,” she says.
“I truly actually loved obituaries; I discovered it very humbling that you’d find out about somebody and write up about their life.”
On the identical time, she began studying to play the guitar.
“Music saved me I believe,” she displays now on how she coped emotionally with being dropped.
“I realised that I missed music, and determined I might train myself guitar so I may go and play music and sing in pubs and issues.
“I met a beautiful group of people that turned superb buddies, and it introduced me again to life.”
The odd gig and a few busking on the weekend helped herald slightly money, however performing wasn’t at all times simple.
“I finished enjoying music as a result of I bought so nervous that it wasn’t gratifying. So I decided: ‘you like enjoying music, you could discover a strategy to recover from the nerves and simply get pleasure from it’.
“It is nearly like placing a face on and never fascinated about individuals 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 believe it is best 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 staff. 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 help which comes with a nationwide set-up, so she pooled assets with some New Zealanders.
“I nonetheless had buddies in British Crusing, and naturally I may speak to them, however it was a bit bizarre,” she says now.
The trouble labored, as a result of the selectors determined it was time to deliver her again.
“It felt very validating,” she says.
“I believe in hindsight [being dropped] was a wholesome factor. It makes you recognize that doing what you like is a really privileged factor. Typically it is good to inform your self it is only a boat race!”
Again on the staff, 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 powerful efficiency on the World Championships within the Hague.
There’s nonetheless a variety resolution to be made and Snellgrove refuses to take something with no consideration, however does specific what it will imply to lastly compete at an Olympic regatta for Crew GB.
“It could be an enormous honour, and a fulfilment of loads of time, effort and laborious work,” she mentioned. “And I do not simply imply mine, I imply lots of people who’ve supported me through the years as effectively.”