Kurts Adams Rozentals, an elite athlete on the national and international stages in the sport of canoe, says his national governing body has put a pause on his competition in events because he’s showing some skin on social media, and OnlyFans in particular.
Paddle UK is the national governing body for paddle sports like kayak and canoe.
In an emotional post on Instagram last month, he talked about the outreach he received from Paddle UK, as well as the sacrifices he and his family have made to overcome the illness of his mother, as well as train for elite competition.
“For the last 15+ years, my life has revolved around one thing: canoe slalom,” he wrote. “The sport I live and breathe. And it wasn’t just me. My familiy sacrificed everything so I could keep chasing the ultimate dream of racing at the Olympics.”
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According to the BBC, Rozentals and other Paddle UK athletes receive a stipend of the equivalent of what today is about $21k per year. He said that’s not nearly enough to cover expenses.
“When you have to cover rent, travel, food… and most athletes who train full-time are all living in London,” he told the BBC.
“They’re very fortunate to have parent backing – I wasn’t. I never had the ability to move to London because of financial struggles so I was always doing the travel from the East Midlands, where I live, to London, back-and-forth, back-and-forth.”
Since joining OnlyFans in January, he said he’s made the equivalent of about $135k.
Paddle UK told the BBC that they have acted against Rozentals and taken a “neutral act designed to protect all parties” and to “safeguard other athletes, staff, and volunteers due to the nature of the allegation.”
On Instagram he’s posted plenty of shirtless shots of him hiking, posing and eating bread, but little beyond that per Instagram policy.
We can only imagine what’s on his subscription-based OnlyFans account, as a link to it is met with this message from him: “Dear mum and dad, please don’t click on this link. And to everyone else, hope you enjoy.”
We also don’t know if Rozentals is gay, straight, bi or anything in between.
Sadly, some people — who seem to have an axe to grind — have questioned whether his complaints are legitimate.
To be clear, Paddle UK themselves have called Rozentals “an elite performer on the global stage at age-group level” and “an impressive part of the British men’s C1 team.”
Regardless of how close to a spot on the 2028 Team GB Olympic team he might be, he is clearly a high-level canoeist who should have access to national and international competitions.
He won two age-group silver medals at the 2023 World Under-23 Championships. He made it to the individual World Championships final just last year and won two European Championships medals.
If he’s being prevented from competition now because of some photos, questions about the legitimacy of his complaints are pretty mean.
Various other Olympic athletes have created OnlyFans accounts for the same reason as Rozentals, and they have continued to compete.
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