A FORMER Olympian who is now pulling pints in a Poole bar has pledged not to give up on his dream.

Handball player John Pearce represented team GB in the 2012 Games, but has been forced to quit the sport after funding was pulled in December.

The 25-year-old, who was selected through UK Sport’s talent identification programme, dedicated five years to handball, but says the future of the sport was on the line even before last year’s Olympics.

He said: “In 2009, British Handball had their funding cut by 50 per cent. That’s UK Sport government funding, which allows you to train full-time up to the Games.

“I was selected in 2007 but was based in Denmark with the programme, so when they cut the funding I was stranded in Denmark on my own for a year.”

With British Handball having no money even to train its players, John eventually made his way home to Branksome, but was determined not to give up the chance of a lifetime.

He said: “I had already left my uni course. I’d come too far to turn back.”

Many of John’s teammates were forced to drop out due to lack of cash, but John did eventually make it to the Games. But immediately after the Olympics, he had an operation to repair a torn cruciate ligament in his knee.

He is now recovering at his parents’ and trying to decide the best way forward.

“I didn’t look beyond 2012 because you forget all the rest of it, you just get to the Games,” he said.

“Every day for five years it was one goal, one vision. It was a really surreal situation afterwards. I came back home on crutches with my mum carrying my Olympic kit.”

John is now working at Le Bateau in Ashley Cross while he tries to promote handball locally and in the UK, determined to remain involved with the sport.