Help fund my training to compete with Team USA

Hi Everyone! My name is Athena Del Rosario . I am a transgender female athlete and was recently selected for the Team USA Beach Handball  training camp on the Greek Island of Paros. We will have a chance to train and play in exhibition games with the Greek and French National Beach Handball Teams. Greece is the current world champions, so this is an excellent opportunity for us to prepare for the upcoming NORCA tournament  in July, which is a qualifying tournament for the 2020 IHF Beach Handball World Championships . We will also be participating in the inaugural 2019 Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC) World Beach Games in San Diego! However, before we travel to Greece to train, we will also be participating in the EHF Karacho Beach Handball Tournament  in Frankfurt, Germany. I need help funding my travels as our program is not well funded and all of the Team USA Beach Handball athletes must self-fund the vast majority of our expenses in our dream to represent our country on the International Elite level...

What is Handball? First let me SHOW you with this link here . In America, most people think of Handball as a game where you throw or hit a ball against a wall, but the rest of the world knows Handball as a fast paced, full contact olympic sport that is played on a court a little bit larger than a basketball court. Two teams of seven players (including a goalkeeper) pass or dribble the ball across the court with the goal of throwing the ball into the opposing team's net. The Beach version of the sport  is similar except that its played on sand with 4 players, is non-contact, and awards extra points for "spectacular" plays such as 360 degree spin shots, ally-oops, and other amazing plays. This year, Beach Handball was added to the youth olympics and is expected to make its Olympic debut in 2020 or 2024 as an exhibition sport.

All funds will go 100% towards my expenses for travel to Germany for the Karacho EHF Beach Handball Tournament and the Training Camp in Paros, Greece with the Greek and French Beach Handball National Teams.

With so many people fighting to keep transwomen out of participating in high level sports, it's so important to be out and visible and competing so that the younger generation does not have to go through this terrible situation that we are now in. I'm trying to fight the perception that trans women have advantages at high levels of competition in Women's sports.I played 4 years of college soccer. While I played for UCSC, we won a conference championship and played against some of the best NCAA Division II teams in the country such as Stanislaus State, Sonoma State, Chico State, CSU Monterey, and so many other schools...even Christian and Catholic schools! There was never a question about any advantage that I had by ANYONE...No objections to me being in the locker rooms, or anything else because I wasn't out and nobody even knew. This national conversation on Transgender athletes is so stupid and its hurting a lot of people. We have been competing already for a long time and nobody is dominating anything at all.

Help me keep going to make sure as many out transwomen are competing at the highest levels to fight these perceptions and encourage younger generations to compete in the sports that they love!

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