LUGER Patrick Singleton has been battling the odds for most of his competitive career.

That's hardly surprising since Bermuda's climate hardly lends itself to a Winter Olympian.

Yet through perseverance and determination, not to mention a healthy dose of courage, he's already competed at one Winter Games, in Nagano, Japan, four years ago, and qualified for the next, in Salt Lake City, just a couple of months away.

Patrick probably won't win a medal, but just like the legendary Jamaican bobsleigh team, he will win an awful lot of friends and admirers.

And with the Bermuda flag emblazoned over his sled and other accessories, he'll no doubt find himself in the media spotlight much as he was in Nagano back in 1997.

Regardless of how he performs on the slopes _ and he's confident of improving on his last Games _ he'll be seen, in a positive kind of way, as something of an oddball.

Only one Bermudian, Simon Payne, has preceded him as a Winter Olympian and it's unlikely too many more will follow.

It's perhaps for that reason why some people don't seem to be taking his accomplishments too seriously.

Singleton's confession this week that he was having to drive thousands of miles from one event to the next because he couldn't afford the air fare _ he was on the road for some 28 hours last weekend _ seems to bear that out.

While other local athletes, some arguably with less potential, have benefited from the Elite Athletes' Fund, the Olympic Solidarity Fund or from generous sponsors, our sole representative at one of the world's biggest sporting festivals claims not to have received a penny.

And that's both a sad and disturbing state of affairs.

As Singleton says, he's not looking for hand-outs. He's got this far on his own hard-earned cash, making an awful lot of sacrifices along the way.

He's simply requesting the same kind of financial assistance which has been afforded most of our other leading athletes who have reached a comparable standard.

There may be a good reason why money hasn't been forthcoming, but with the Salt Lake Games just around the corner, perhaps somebody could explain it.

- ADRIAN ROBSON