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.

  • BlanketsWithSmallpox@lemmy.world
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    2 years ago

    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.

  • originalucifer@moist.catsweat.com
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    2 years ago

    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.

  • M0oP0o@mander.xyz
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    2 years ago

    Don’t worry, Coca-Cola and the like will continue making buckets of cash from the Olympics…

    Wait non companies need money too?

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    2 years ago

    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.