COMP NEWS – Olympians are having trouble paying their bills – and are turning to celebrities and crowdfunding to meet their needs.

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.

Athletes have turned to crowdfunding in order to obtain the funds they need to train for the Olympics and help them participate in the 2024 games.

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.

To read more what Olympians earn, click here.

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