If the Summer season Olympics have you ever feeling patriotic, there’s a straightforward solution to present your assist for America’s athletes: give them cash.
Roughly 600 athletes are in Paris this summer time representing Workforce USA, and whereas there are some notably rich superstars within the combine — like NBA icon LeBron James, whose internet price is reportedly over $1 billion — many are scraping by. Kaleigh Gilchrist, a three-time member of the ladies’s Olympic water polo crew, estimated in a USA Immediately article that solely 5% of Olympians reap big monetary rewards from competing on the highest stage: “The remainder of us live paycheck by paycheck,” she mentioned.
The U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee awards athletes with $2.5 million yearly in scholarships and grants to pay for his or her schooling, journey, medical and coaching bills. American Olympians obtain funds of $15,000 to $37,500 for every medal they win, and a few portion of athletes have profitable sponsorship offers. But most do not earn any cash for competing of their sport.
To make ends meet, Olympians and their households are more and more turning to social media and crowdfunding campaigns asking for direct monetary assist. It’s a method that appears to be working, particularly due to high-profile donors like rapper Taste Flav and Reddit cofounder (and husband of tennis all-time nice Serena Williams) Alexis Ohanian.
Veronica Fraley, an American track-and-field star competing within the ladies’s discus throw, proudly introduced on X (previously Twitter) Friday that she “paid my hire this morning.” That is noteworthy as a result of the day earlier than, Fraley posted a distinct message griping, “I compete within the Olympic Video games TOMORROW and may’t even pay my hire.”
The submit grabbed the eye of Ohanian — who promptly despatched her $7,760 on Venmo.
Taste Flav, a founding member of Public Enemy who teamed up with Ohanian to assist Fraley with hire cash, had already been heralded because the American ladies’s water polo high supporter after promising to sponsor the crew. He supplied assist in response to an Instagram submit in Might from four-time Olympian and crew captain Maggie Steffens.
“Some could not know this, however most Olympians want a 2nd (or third) job to assist chasing the dream (myself included!),” she wrote. “Most groups depend on sponsors for journey, lodging, dietary assist, hire/lodging, and easily affording to dwell at the moment. Particularly feminine sports activities and feminine athletes.”
USA Water Polo later proclaimed Taste Flav as their “official hype man” after he signed a five-year sponsorship deal for the boys’s and ladies’s nationwide groups. The stunning partnership has generated an unprecedented quantity of consideration for the game, particularly due to viral TikToks displaying the rapper cheering on the ladies’s crew in Paris with the likes of First Girl Jill Biden.
“Area of interest sports activities usually do not get the highlight they deserve, however they’re full of unimaginable expertise and coronary heart,” Taste Flav mentioned in a press release. “Collectively, we will make some critical waves!”
Crowdfunding for Olympic athletes
Past movie star donations, Olympic athletes and their households have been elevating cash for his or her coaching and bills via crowdfunding campaigns. Fraley’s GoFundMe marketing campaign has generated over $15,000 from greater than 400 promised donations lower than 24 hours after it launched on Thursday.
GoFundMe, which has a centralized web page with verified fundraisers for Olympians, tells Cash that athletes across the globe have raised greater than $2 million via its platform to assist them take part within the 2024 Video games, together with over $300,000 earmarked for U.S. athletes competing in Paris.
“It actually takes a village for an athlete to compete at this stage,” a GoFundMe assertion offered to Cash says. “These athletes depend on the generosity of buddies, household, and their communities to assist fill the gaps for every part from gear to coaching, supplementing incomes and extra.”
Probably the most high-profile campaigns benefited Dylan Beard, an Olympic hopeful in hurdles and full-time worker on the deli counter at a Walmart in North Carolina. Since he appeared on the Immediately present in April, Beard’s GoFundMe has raised greater than $55,000. (Sadly, Beard finally didn’t qualify to compete within the 2024 Video games.)
In the meantime, relations of sprinter Brittany Brown and wrestler Aaron Brooks are protecting their journey prices in France due to campaigns which have raised greater than $9,000 and $6,000, respectively. Yet one more marketing campaign, funding the bills for Robyn Rabinovitch, a swim coach and the mom of open water swimmer Ivan Puskovitch, has raised round $29,000.
GoFund Me says that it has seen “sturdy fundraising efforts to assist households touring to witness” their family members competing in individual in Paris, and that these initiatives are “particularly vital because the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo didn’t permit for spectators.”
The fundraising development isn’t unique to the U.S. Athletes from Australia and Nice Britain, amongst different nations, are additionally working crowdfunding campaigns to assist them pursue their desires.
Some athletes are even utilizing crowdfunding in retirement. A marketing campaign for Mary Lou Retton, the legendary American gymnast who gained 5 Olympic medals in 1984, initially set a fundraising aim of $50,000 to assist cowl her in depth medical money owed associated to her battle in opposition to a uncommon type of pneumonia. The marketing campaign, launched final 12 months on the Spotfund platform, has now amassed greater than $450,000.
Extra from Cash:
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Why Kamala Harris and Donald Trump Maintain Sending You Texts Asking for Tiny Donations
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