REBEKAH Tiler fears that living in squalid accommodation will jeopardise her future in weightlifting.

The 18-year-old from Denholme, who competed for Great Britain in the Rio Olympics and is a four-time European champion and twice a World Championship silver medallist, has been forced to move from adequate student premises in Loughborough to something that is so poor that it is keeping her and her family awake at night.

Her mum Emma, who was in tears on Monday night after viewing the premises, said: “Rebekah’s ‘new’ accommodation is well below standard.

“We viewed it in May and understood that it was going to be refurbished and cleaned but the kitchen is a health hazard, there is no lock on Rebekah’s bedroom door, the communal shower is unusable and the lock on the outside door has not been changed for months so how do we know how many people have got access to a key?

“Rebekah is having to shower at the gym, there is no safe place to cook meals and the landlord refuses to put a lock on her door – he won’t even let us put a lock on it.

“She had to put a chair against the door on Monday night so that she felt safe and that nobody was going to come in, and we (my husband Chris and I) haven’t slept since we saw the state of the place.

“You don’t know who is going to be in her room when she isn’t there. Would anyone want their child to live like this?

“Also you cannot expect an elite athlete to live on takeaways and be able to compete at their best.”

Ashley Metcalfe, BWL’s chief executive officer, said of the accommodation: “It is not the Ritz but Rebekah, who chose the accommodation, is staying with Fraer Morrow, and Fraer’s parents say that it is better than anything that they stayed in when they were students.

“As for the security situation, we have locksmiths and joiners who will sort it.

“Our top priority is always the health and welfare of our athletes, even though we are no longer getting funding from UK Sport.”

Weightlifting is among 11 sports whose governing bodies are currently battling UK Sport calling for funding to be spread over more sports, and not just those where athletes have a real chance

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of Olympic or Paralympic medals. Emma added: “Rebekah’s funding stopped at the end of June, but she has managed to save some money to live on for the rest of this month, but after that she faces having to get a job (either full-time or part-time), and how will she be able to fit in her training from 10am to noon and 3pm-5pm with her job?

“Also a lot of the British Weight Lifting staff have been laid off, including performance director Tommy Yule, and his replacement has gone as well, as has the physio.

“Rebekah stays in Loughborough during the week but comes home at weekends and says that she has had no physio for weeks and that her knees are aching.in

“Also why does British Weight Lifting continue to spend thousands on competitions when I am sure that some of those competitors would be happy for that money to go to the elite athletes?”

Rebekah, who is putting a brave face on her situation but is stressed out, has even urged the public not to buy tickets for the British Championships on July 15-16 at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry.

She tweeted: “I’m really sad that I work hard while @GBWeightLifting benefit from it. I have to live in poor unsafe conditions trying my best to get by.

“I urge u not to buy tickets for the British it cost 1,000’s they could spend less to help their athletes without them it wouldn’t happen.”