PARIS (AP) — 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.
After medaling at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, Laugher, who scored another bronze in Paris last week for the U.K., said he was waiting for funding that never materialized. His account, costing $10 a month for a subscription, says he posts “SFW (safe for work) content in Speedos, briefs, boxers.” A recent post from the Olympics got more than 1,400 likes.
“For me, it’s been an absolute lifeline,” he said, before he was whisked away mid-interview by a British team official, underscoring the sensitivity of the issue.
The AP spoke to multiple current and former Olympians who painted a sobering portrait of what they had to do — and bare — to get to Paris.
Laugher, and other current and former Olympians — rower Robbie Manson (New Zealand), pole vaulter Alysha Newman (Canada), divers Timo Barthel (Germany), Diego Belleza Isaias (Mexico) and Matthew Mitcham (Australia), the first openly gay Olympic gold medalist — found a measure of financial stability in OnlyFans that other funding failed to provide.
Unable to secure traditional sponsorships, Mitcham began posting photos on OnlyFans, including semi-frontal nudes, earning triple the amount he received as a top athlete.
“That body is an amazing commodity that people want to pay to see. It’s a privilege to see a body that has six hours of work every day, six days a week put into it to make it Adonis-like,” said Mitcham, who describes himself as a “sex worker-lite.”
Manson, meanwhile, credited OnlyFans with boosting his athletic performance, saying his content included “thirst traps,” but nothing pornographic.
“My content is nude or implied nude. I keep it artistic, I have fun with it and try not to take myself too seriously. That’s something I’ve also tried to maintain in my approach to rowing ... This approach has helped me achieve a personal best result at the Olympics,” he told the AP.
While some athletes say they don’t see what they’re doing as sex work, German diver Bartel put it frankly: “In sport, you wear nothing but a Speedo, so you’re close to being naked.”
Global Athlete, an organization created by athletes to address the power imbalance in sports, decried the dire state of Olympic financing.
“The entire funding model for Olympic sport is broken. The IOC generates now over US$1.7 billion per year and they refuse to pay athletes who attend the Olympics,” said Rob Koehler, Global Athlete’s director general.
He criticized the IOC for forcing athletes to sign away their image rights. /AP