PARIS (WKRC) – Most people might assume reaching the Olympic stage would be the end-all-be-all for an athlete, but gold and glory alone doesn’t pay the bills.

Although competitors like Simone Biles and Michael Phelps have turned their Olympic record into a career, they did so through high-paying sponsorships and endorsements.

Although there is evidence that many countries give athletes a monetary bonus based on medal wins, the Olympic games themselves do not pay the participants for competing or training. These Olympic athletes give all of their time and effort into competing in the competition, so how the heck do they make ends meet?

In a variety of ways.

Giorgia Villa helped Team Italy secure the silver medal in Team All-Around Artistic Gymnastics and has been winning placements in gymnastic competitions since 2018. If you could make money off of feats of athleticism, Villa would be a billionaire, but her benefactor instead comes from an unexpected source: Parmesan cheese.

More specifically Parmigiano Reggiano, one of the most popular brands of Parmesan in the world. Parmigiano Reggiano is similar to all other brands of Parmesan, but has strict legal criteria (including where it was produced, how it was produced, and how long it aged) that fit it under the Parmigiano Reggiano umbrella. Additionally, all Parmigiano Reggiano producers are owned by the Consorzio del Formaggio Parmigiano Reggiano (‘Parmigiano Reggiano Cheese Consortium’) which is in charge of marketing efforts for the product.

The Conzorzio offered Giorgia Villa the chance to be a brand ambassador for Parmigiano Reggiano in 2021, and she happily accepted, saying, “Since I was a child I have always loved this fantastic product, a symbol of Italian excellence and culture, and from today being able to collaborate with them makes me extremely proud and charged to face future challenges.”

Some Olympians are making their own sponsorships, as is the case for New Zealand’s Robbie Manson.

Between Robbie Manson’s performances at the 2012 and 2016 Olympic games, he publicly came out as gay. This quickly increased his popularity with LGBTQ+ audiences, but otherwise had little effect on his career until he announced the creation of his OnlyFans. OnlyFans is a site that allows users to sell premium content (like photos or videos) to customers, and is typically used for sex work and pornography.

“The fact that I’m gay, I have the gay following and the audience already,” Manson said about the reasoning behind creating the profile. “I wouldn’t say it’s for everyone, [but] for other athletes, there’s definitely an opportunity there.”

“I get more than double what I would be otherwise as an athlete – read into that what you will, but I am making more from OnlyFans than I am from rowing at this stage.”

He said that the team and its managers are completely aware of Manson’s side gig and “they’re aware that this is making a huge financial impact and helping me get to where I want to go, and they understand that we’re not highly-funded…”

Another athlete was struggling with finances all the way up to the day before her event, but luckily some well-funded saved the day.

Veronica Fraley, a decorated discus thrower, posted to X on Thursday that despite being one day away from competing on the Olympic stage, she was still struggling to pay rent. Specifically, she was upset that her school only paid 75% of her rent while giving football players “who haven’t won anything” money to buy cars and houses.

The post didn’t garner much attention at first, with the athlete’s fans attempting to tag celebrities for urgent assistance. Luckily the co-founder of iconic rap group Public Enemy and overall hip-hop superstar, Flavor Flav, is a big fan of the Olympics (if his X profile is anything to go on).

The rapper replied to the post with a generous promise:

Not only that, but co-founder of Reddit and investor, Alexis Ohanian, also donated some money to the star athlete so she could compete without a financial storm cloud hanging over her head.

Barely 24 hours after the original post was uploaded, Veronica announced that her rent had been paid.

Unfortunately, it seems that even at the peak of their career these athletes can never catch a break. What do you think about this? Should Olympians be paid so they can focus on training and performing at their absolute best?

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