Cash-strapped South African swimmers Roland Schoeman and Chad Ho have taken to crowd-funding to raise money as they chase international glory.

The pair, both Olympians, are among 13 athletes looking for public backing on dreamfuel.me, a website established to assist athletes financially.

Schoeman, one of SA's most decorated Olympic athletes with three medals at Athens 2004, wants to qualify for his fifth Games, which would be an SA first.

The 35-year-old, who is based in the US, was dropped from the SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee's funding programme last year after he failed to make the 50m freestyle podium at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

Schoeman is looking to raise $10000 (R124000) before mid-December as part of his #RolandToRio campaign, and by yesterday morning his fund stood at $705.

Durban-based Ho, who as a schoolboy finished ninth at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, had raised $700 of the $1500 he had targeted for the 2015 world championships in Kazan, Russia, which kick off today.

Most of SA's aquatics contingent had to pay to make the trip, many of them around R1 500.

If 25-year-old Ho, a six-time Midmar Mile champion, can finish in the top 10 of the 10km race on Monday, he will secure automatic qualification for Rio 2016.

Schoeman will need to swim a qualifying time of 22.27sec at national trials next year to book his Rio spot.

Struggling with a virus at this year's trials, he managed a best of only 22.38, meaning he will miss his first world championships of this millennium.