Olympians Can't Pay Their Bills. Celebrities and Crowdfunding Are Coming to the Rescue

If the Summer Olympics have you feeling patriotic, there’s an easy way to show your support for America’s athletes: give them money.

Roughly 600 athletes are in Paris this summer representing Team USA, and while there are some notably wealthy superstars in the mix — like NBA icon LeBron James, whose net worth is reportedly over $1 billion — many are scraping by. Kaleigh Gilchrist, a three-time member of the women’s Olympic water polo team, estimated in a USA Today article that only 5% of Olympians reap huge financial rewards from competing at the highest level: “The rest of us are living paycheck by paycheck,” she said.

The U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee awards athletes with $2.5 million annually in scholarships and grants to pay for their education, travel, medical and training expenses. American Olympians receive payments of $15,000 to $37,500 for each medal they win, and some portion of athletes have lucrative sponsorship deals. Yet most don't earn any money for competing in their sport.

To make ends meet, Olympians and their families are increasingly turning to social media and crowdfunding campaigns asking for direct financial help. It’s a strategy that seems to be working, especially thanks to high-profile donors like rapper Flavor Flav and Reddit cofounder (and husband of tennis all-time great Serena Williams) Alexis Ohanian.

Veronica Fraley, an American track-and-field star competing in the women’s discus throw, proudly announced on X (formerly Twitter) Friday that she “paid my rent this morning.” This is noteworthy because the day before, Fraley posted a different message griping, “I compete in the Olympic Games TOMORROW and can’t even pay my rent.”

The post grabbed the attention of Ohanian — who promptly sent her $7,760 on Venmo.

Flavor Flav, a founding member of Public Enemy who teamed up with Ohanian to help Fraley with rent money, had already been heralded as the American women’s water polo top supporter after promising to sponsor the team. He offered help in response to an Instagram post in May from four-time Olympian and team captain Maggie Steffens.

“Some may not know this, but most Olympians need a 2nd (or 3rd) job to support chasing the dream (myself included!),” she wrote. “Most teams rely on sponsors for travel, accommodations, nutritional support, rent/lodging, and simply affording to live in this day and age. Especially female sports and female athletes.”

USA Water Polo later proclaimed Flavor Flav as their “official hype man” after he signed a five-year sponsorship deal for the men’s and women’s national teams. The surprising partnership has generated an unprecedented amount of attention for the sport, especially thanks to viral TikToks showing the rapper cheering on the women’s team in Paris with the likes of First Lady Jill Biden.

“Niche sports often don't get the spotlight they deserve, but they are packed with incredible talent and heart,” Flavor Flav said in a statement. “Together, we're going to make some serious waves!"

Crowdfunding for Olympic athletes

Beyond celebrity donations, Olympic athletes and their families have been raising money for their training and expenses through crowdfunding campaigns. Fraley’s GoFundMe campaign has generated over $15,000 from more than 400 promised donations less than 24 hours after it launched on Thursday.

GoFundMe, which has a centralized page with verified fundraisers for Olympians, tells Money that athletes around the globe have raised more than $2 million through its platform to help them participate in the 2024 Games, including over $300,000 earmarked for U.S. athletes competing in Paris.

"It truly takes a village for an athlete to compete at this level," a GoFundMe statement provided to Money says. "These athletes rely on the generosity of friends, family, and their communities to help fill the gaps for everything from equipment to training, supplementing incomes and more."

One of the most high-profile campaigns benefited Dylan Beard, an Olympic hopeful in hurdles and full-time employee at the deli counter at a Walmart in North Carolina. Since he appeared on the Today show in April, Beard’s GoFundMe has raised more than $55,000. (Unfortunately, Beard ultimately didn’t qualify to compete in the 2024 Games.)

Meanwhile, family members of sprinter Brittany Brown and wrestler Aaron Brooks are covering their travel costs in France thanks to campaigns that have raised more than $9,000 and $6,000, respectively. Yet another campaign, funding the expenses for Robyn Rabinovitch, a swim coach and the mother of open water swimmer Ivan Puskovitch, has raised around $29,000.

GoFund Me says that it has seen "strong fundraising efforts to support families traveling to witness" their loved ones competing in person in Paris, and that these initiatives are "especially significant as the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo didn’t allow for spectators."

The fundraising trend isn’t exclusive to the U.S. Athletes from Australia and Great Britain, among other countries, are also running crowdfunding campaigns to help them pursue their dreams.

Some athletes are even using crowdfunding in retirement. A campaign for Mary Lou Retton, the legendary American gymnast who won five Olympic medals in 1984, originally set a fundraising goal of $50,000 to help cover her extensive medical debts related to her battle against a rare form of pneumonia. The campaign, launched last year on the Spotfund platform, has now amassed more than $450,000.

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