Dire financial straits are leading droves of Olympic athletes to sell images of their bodies to subscribers on OnlyFans — known for sexually explicit content — to sustain their dreams of gold at the Games. As they struggle to make ends meet, a spotlight is being cast on an Olympics funding system that watchdog groups condemn as “broken,” claiming most athletes “can barely pay their rent.”
The Olympics, the world’s biggest sporting stage, bring in billions of dollars in TV rights, ticket sales and sponsorship, but most athletes must fend for themselves financially.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) did not express concern about the situation. When asked by The Associated Press about athletes turning to OnlyFans, IOC spokesman Mark Adams said, “I would assume that athletes, like all citizens, are allowed to do what they can.”
Watching his sponsorships dry up and facing mounting costs, Jack Laugher was among the pantheon of Olympic athletes using the often-controversial platform to get to the Games — or simply survive.
Make the “permanent” seats on the UN Security Council conditional on being in the top five Olympic gold medal rankings and all of a sudden we’ll see endless streams of government funding for athletes.
And cheating/doping.
Well yes. This is obviously not a serious proposal.
Strangely enough, if you rank them by medal count you basically just replace Russia with Australia.
Wow, what a world where super-hot hard-bodied Olympians have to create OnlyFans pages to make ends meet. I will want to do more research on this.
Does anyone know the specific pages they’re talking about? For research.
The Olympics was intended for amateur athletes, but they’re all essentially professionals now if they have any chance of medaling (the Turkish shooter excepted) because they get years of specialized training. And, of course, they find endless new ways to abuse those athletes’ bodies by using ever-more sophisticated ways to secretly dope them.
Half of them will be broken by the time they’re 30. I’m not at all surprised that this is what they have to resort to.
There are still a few amateurs left: L. James, S. Curry, RayGunn
Do you know why? Because rich people didn’t want to compete against the poor. If you couldn’t afford to compete, you didn’t. The rich can’t didn’t fancy meeting Gary the local bouncer in a boxing match.
History of Olympics is fucked up.
History of everything is fucked up.
Power, money, and violence are usually how things go, the bubble of “freedom” that has existed for a few hundred years maybe be yielding.
Why is the Turkish shooter excepted?
Because he apparently didn’t have years of training, based on what I read.
He’s been shooting for a long time and has a bunch of records and awards.
But not professional training.
Who is downvoting this? He literally said that he didn’t had a coach, yeah he was a soldier but it’s just them alone training (it was a mixed team competition)
People are weird.
He’s an ex-cop
Starring Mel Gibson in
TURKEY SHOOT
SPRING 2025
So, not professional training?
Plenty of dogs and minorities would say otherwise.
And the Olympics being for “amateurs” was a deliberate effort by the Olympic committee when the modern games were started to exclude the working classes from competing.
The whole “best of the best” is just branding. The Olympics needs serious reform.
Another 19th century thing that was exclusionary at its beginning.
Yeah, by “amateurs” they meant wealthy men who didn’t work and so had spare time to get good at sport. Really good Behind the Bastards episodes that touch on this actually.
Behind the Bastards - Part One: How Avery Brundage Gave Hitler an Olympics
Behind the Bastards - Part Two: How Avery Brundage Gave Hitler an Olympics
A fellow podcast addict user, I see.
There’s dozens of us!
Hell yeah, another BTB listener? There’s dozens of us, dozens!
You know who else gives things to Hitler?
The sponsors of this comment thread!
Products!
Trevor Moore gave Hitler a good rap.
There’s millions who stream or download each episode. It’s in the top 200 podcasts by listener, and their is a shitload of podcasts out there.
T’was an arrested development reference sir.
Robert Evans is a national treasure.
We need to come up with like…a secret handshake…or like…idfk…a gang sign or something?
a 4 Garret diamond?
i feel like these athletes need to have a plan B for real jobs.
the olympics have been bastardized into a corporate for-profit orgy. theres no honor in these games. its sad that these humans who feel they are accomplishing something dont see the truth; theyre just tools that can be discarded.
You can’t win if you have a plan B. Especially in prestige events. Either the athlete is fully supported by their countries association or they hope to get top 30.
Link to livestreams of the orgy competition?
Groove Tube was 50 years ahead.
its sad that these humans who feel they are accomplishing something dont see the truth; theyre just tools that can be discarded.
They are accomplishing something. It’s just not recognized by the greedy fuckwits exploiting their achievements for profit.
Well, the plan is to get corporate sponsors. That’s always been the road.
Edit: always as in the past ~50 years.
really? which corps sponsored the roman olympics?
or is this a recent requirement because humans dont actually put money into humanities without some profit incentive?
In the Roman Olympics, only rich people could compete. Now it’s better, not perfect, but better.
Trojan?
I edited the comment prior to your reply specifying the last 50 years.
and thats spose to make it ok?
The comment was never not okay. It’s a comment. Don’t be mad that I thought to be more specific about my comment before you got a chance to take your bad day out on a random person. I suggest taking your crappy attitude somewhere else. I assure you, no satisfaction will be gained by talking to me.
i was expecting a discussion on the poisoning of the olympics by corporate entities, but all you did was point out it is ‘new’ as if that matters somehow
I assure you, no satisfaction will be gained by talking to me.
too late, but i get it; youre done. no prob
If that’s what you wanted, you should have been more specific instead of assuming a jab would have been the proper way to have a polite conversation. I’m glad to know you can get satisfaction out of playing with yourself online. ✌️
I have bad news for you: Nobody is here to fulfill your expectations.
I’m wondering about viewership this year. Nobody I know is watching or talking about the games. Besides what hits social media like the Turkish shooter.
It’s extremely popular. Every single business I’ve walked into has had it on the TV and all of my friend/family group chats and coworkers have been talking about it. It wouldn’t be making hundreds of millions in ad revenue if nobody was watching it.
A lot of people I know are watching, and more than just the memes.
Most of the sports in the Olympics aren’t really money makers. That’s more or less always been the case. Many athletes train while working fulltime. Maybe it’s good OF and things like it provide another outlet. Some countries fund their athletes, and others don’t. If anyone is upset about people making a fortune off of it, you can always stop supporting it.
People are upset that professional athletes at the world stage, the best of the best, that bring glory and medals to their countries are left to fend for themselves between events.
I’m even more upset that the best teacher or the best social worker doesn’t get any recognition at all.
A dude/dudette skateboarding, jumping or shooting with a bow doesn’t bring me any value, entertainment or otherwise. If they can’t find a sponsor, tough luck.
Arent the olympians supposed to be “non professional”? Or maybe it used to be
Are you saying they should be jobless hobos?
They should have a full time job to fund their hobby like normal people.
Olympic sport = hObBiE
Riiight.
Like an OnlyFans job?
They should be funded by the IOC. Right now, they’re being paid by their country (if they want to have a chance of medaling).
They also rarely train inside that country or with a trainer from that country. Many of them go to the U.S. for training and stay there for years.
And how do you suggest the IOC should get the money to pay for all those ‘employees’ ?
From the article:
The Olympics, the world’s biggest sporting stage, bring in billions of dollars in TV rights, ticket sales and sponsorship, but most athletes must fend for themselves financially.
Ok, so the IOC should be taking that revenue away from the host country and expect them to pay for the infrastructure and staff at an even bigger loss?
Which country or city would want to do that?
It doesn’t say the host country is the one that makes the money. And I’m sure they can spare a billion or two for the athletes.
What doesn’t say the host country is the one that makes the money?
The Olympics is already operating at a net loss, with the host city/country basically footing the bill in exchange for publicity.
Do you think these cities would be happy to pay for 20.000 extra ‘employees’ for four years?
Not at all
Hasn’t been that way for 30 odd years. Think of Jordan’s dream team
Honestly, it’s had pros for even longer. The USSR “amateurs” were members of the Red Army whose entire job was their sport.
I think this needs a bit more context. Before “the dream team” the US only sent NCAA basketball players. The same goes with all sports, including hockey. The US’s complaint was that other countries were sending their professional players. Cuba’s baseball team, the USSR’s hockey team, etc. were solely comprised of essentially professional players that did they sport for a living. It was successfully argued that this was an unfair advantage for countries with programs like this.
PS: This is why “The Miracle on Ice”, when the US beat the USSR in hockey was such a big deal. The US team was essentially a bunch college kids while the USSR was playing with arguably the best hockey players in the world at the time. It was the equivalent to Puerto Rico beating the original Dream Team in basketball.
Is this different from having to shill your non-nude body on Instagram?
No, but prudes will prude once nudity is involved for cash lol.
They will probably earn more selling nudes than they would as fitness instructors and coaches when they’re past competing age too.
It’s not even necessarily nudity in every of these cases. Could be just quite revealing pictures
No different than posing in beefcake physique mags back in the day.
Oh cool, I’ve actually read this dystopian scifi before.
Don’t worry, Coca-Cola and the like will continue making buckets of cash from the Olympics…
Wait non companies need money too?
Maybe the athletes can sell shares of themselves, provide dividends and engage in stock buy-back. /s
Aaaaand we’ve reached yet another low. I dunno, but this really is a punch in the gut for me.
Countries and cities spend BILLIONS on the stuoid olympics (or footbal world cups), building stadiums that will be abandoned right after the event is over, we ignore slavery and corruption (hello quatar, hello fifa!) and abuses, and the athletes themselves? Nobody gives a shit, go prostitute yourself!
But the Olympics and the world cup are awesome!! /s
And just to clarify: all respect to the athletes, they are awesome but they are participating in abusive events, unfortunately.
Links… For science…
Thank you for furthering the research and science
I mean at the end of the day athletes are entertainers. And just like actors or singers, it doesn’t matter if you’re very good at what you do if you can’t land the paid gigs or sell yourself in some way. And the people making the big money are going to be a small few at the very top.
This is the exact same thing as Superbowl cheerleaders being “paid” with “exposure.” What gig can they land that is bigger than The Superbowl? What gig can the literal best athletes in the world land that is bigger than The Olympics? There isn’t one. The people running both of those events are stuffing their own pockets and treating the people who do the actual work as slaves.
Do super bowl cheerleaders not get paid?
They get a pittance. I had forgotten that they get $100-150 per game.
No hourly, no salary. They are literal gig workers, most of whom make $22,000-$25,000 per year. The ones at The Superbowl, aka the absolute top tier cheerleaders, make a whole $70,000 a year. They may as well not be getting paid for how little they make compared to everyone else in the industry.
It’s less than the players and coches for sure, but even the best janitor in the world doesn’t get paid 70k. It’s not a bad income…
Added emphasis. They aren’t guaranteed to make that much, and the places that they have to live to be able to make that much, a janitor better be making more than 70k. That isn’t a liveable wage on the west coast, which is where you have to be to make that much.
I have no idea where you live but I am guessing you have a decent income. It is coming off a bit “how much could one banana cost”.
Janitors in Los Angeles apparently make around $50,000. Minimum wage is of course quite a bit less than that. I am sure there are a lot of people on “the west coast” that would like to make a “living wage”.
https://www.indeed.com/career/janitor/salaries/Los-Angeles--CA
I live in San Diego. I do make a lot, but with rents the way they are around here, not to mention gas prices, I’ve no idea how anyone is doing anything but barely surviving on 50k a year out here.
I know people don’t get paid that much, but I don’t know how they do it, and I refuse to pay employees that poorly.
These are the literal best in the world. They are the top
Okay?
I don’t think it’s right, but:
The top of entertainment. Vast majority compete in sports with little-to-no money in them. Being only a small part of a two-week competition every four years.
Now, personally, I think competing on the Olympics should come with an automatic $50k bonus, but I don’t have control over that.
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Um, my country doesn’t fund its athletes’ travel and entry to the games; and training is a sponsorship deal already. It’s a hidden hustle to get to compete, and it’s not talked about but it’s definitely part of every athlete’s job at this point.
We talk about funding our hopefuls, out of some federal sports fund-bucket, but the conservatives argue that’s a waste of money when they already don’t want to fund schools or healthcare.
