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You need to devote a ton of time and energy if you want to reach the level of talent you need to compete at the Olympics, and as is the case with many things in life, money is also a very big factor. One canoeist hoping to represent Great Britain started an OnlyFans to address those financial needs, but they’re facing a brutal catch-22 after claiming it’s led to them being blackballed.
The majority of the sports that comprise both the summer and winter editions of the Olympic Games are relatively niche pastimes that are only thrust into the international spotlight when those events roll around every four years.
That also means most of them aren’t inherently lucrative ventures. Sure, the athletes who are good enough to represent their nation in basketball, tennis, or ice hockey are probably doing pretty well for themselves, but the bulk of fencers and curlers aren’t exactly swimming in dough because they chose those paths.
According to the BBC, Kurts Adams Rozentals, a British canoeist who is hoping to represent his country in the individual slalom event when the Summer Olympics head to Los Angeles in 2028, falls under the umbrella of athletes who are all too familiar with the lack of cash that comes with devoting your life to a fairly obscure discipline.
Rozentals has racked up over 72,000 followers on the Instagram account where he chronicles his training and day-to-day life. He told the outlet he decided to leverage the platform to drum up interest for the OnlyFans account he started and January and says he primarily created it to support himself as he pursues his Olympic dream.
That turned out to be a pretty solid call when you consider he says he’s made more than $135,000 on the adult-oriented platform thanks to the self-described “spicy content” he’s posted there, but things took a turn in April when UK Paddle—the governing body that oversees the World Class Programme he’d been participating in–informed him he’d been suspended pending the results of an investigation into his decision to run an OnlyFans page.
Rozentals says UK Paddle provided him with a £16,000 (~$21,500) annual grant to support his training but notes it only does so much to cover the costs of travel, food, and housing (the notoriously pricey London is the primary hub for full-time canoeists in the country).
He subsequently turned to OnlyFans to supplement those funds but asserts he’s now being forced to choose between that lucrative side hustle or the sport he loves.
UK Paddle described the ban, which prohibits him from contacting any other members of the program, as an “interim action “designed to “safeguard other athletes, staff, and volunteers due to the nature of the allegation” while a third-party service takes care of an investigation that seemingly stems from Rozentals violating clauses concerning “offensive use of social media” and “indecent, offensive or immoral behaviour.”
The canoeist hinted he may forge his own path while continuing to run the account, adding, “Unless something changes in the way athletes are paid, I don’t see a way of working with Paddle UK.”
There’s still plenty of time for the matter to be resolved before the next Olympics, so I guess we’ll just have to wait and see how this pans out.