Stanthorpe Swimming Club has thrown its support behind its first Olympian Ben Armbruster in a big way as he prepares for the Paris Olympics later this month.
Club president Craig Magnussen said the club would be holding a watch party on Friday 2 August from 5.30pm to watch Armbruster compete in the heats of the 100m butterfly.
He said the party at the International Club would also act as a fundraising event.
“As you know, our very own Stanthorpe product, Ben Armbruster, has qualified for the Paris Olympics in the 50m freestyle and 100m butterfly,” he said.
“As a first time Olympian, Ben is essentially a self funded athlete and receives very little financial support from Swimming Australia.
“We are aiming to help make it possible for Ben’s family to get to the games and be there in person to support him to swim at his absolute best.
“Ben swims the 100m butterfly heats at 7pm on Friday, 2 August Queensland time. “It’s the perfect time for our community to get together and cheer him on.
“We are hosting a ‘watch party’ at the International Club from 5.30pm, which we anticipate will be jam packed with people and receive local, regional and national media exposure.
“Donations of raffle prizes and/or pledges of cash support will be both greatly appreciated and widely acknowledged.”
The club have already shown their support with a cheque of $1000 handed over to Armbruster’s mum on behalf of her son.
Magnussen said they were happy to support Ben on his Olympic quest.
“Everyone is extremely thrilled and proud to see Ben make his Olympics,” he said.
“But the reality of it is extremely expensive for an athlete to get there some help from Swimming Australia to get there but there are different tiers of athletes so he doesn’t get a great deal of support.”
Magnussen said while this was a huge achievement
“We are not only really happy for Ben to see his dreams come reality and talking to his mum it’s still a real pinch me moment for the family too, it’s still really surreal,” he said.
“Who knows, hopefully he can get to a final and do one better than that. Ben’s a racer too and he loves competing, anything is possible when he gets there.
“It’s an incredible achievement and then what it means for swimming in Stanthorpe and our club going forward – we’re going to make the most of it of course. We’re trying to grow our club and hopefully produce more elite swimmers and more Olympians.
“We hope this is going to help springboard our club onto bigger and better things too.”
For further information contact the club on stanthorpeswimmingclub@gmail.com.
