Olympic glory is thrilling, but it doesn’t always pay the bills.
Veronica Fraley, a discus thrower on Team USA, shared as much earlier this week, when she told her followers on X that she was struggling to make ends meet.
“I compete in the Olympic Games TOMORROW and can’t even pay my rent,” she wrote on X, punctuating with an emoji wearing an incredulous expression.
Enter Flavor Flav, the “hype man” of the US water polo teams, and Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian. The men, who’ve been cheering on Team USA at the Paris Olympics all week, banded together to not only pay Fraley’s rent for the month but cover her rent for the rest of 2024.
“I’m just happy to help those who are representing the best of all of us,” Flav said in a statement to CNN. “This is exactly why I have been in Paris. I am trying to bring awareness of some of the hardships Olympians experience. They are out here working two to three jobs just to get by.”
Fraley, a first-time Olympian and a graduate student at Vanderbilt University, shared her financial troubles on X on Thursday, the day before her qualifying event.
“My school only sent about 75% of my rent while they pay football players … enough to buy new cars and houses,” she wrote on X, noting that the Vanderbilt Commodores football team “haven’t won anything.” (Last season, the team won two games and lost 10. Vanderbilt doesn’t make its athletes’ earnings through NIL — or name, image and likeness — deals public, but a CBS Sports analysis from May revealed that top college football players could make hundreds of thousands of dollars every year.)
Flav found Fraley’s post and pledged his support.
“I gotchu,” he wrote. “DM me and I’ll send payment TODAY so you don’t have to worry bout it TOMORROW.”
A representative for Flav confirmed to CNN that the Public Enemy co-founder paid Fraley’s rent in full and that Ohanian paid her rent for the rest of 2024.
CNN has reached out to Ohanian’s representatives for comment. Meanwhile, Ohanian shared a screenshot on X of a transaction in which he sent Fraley $7,760.
Fraley thanked Flav and Ohanian in a post, writing “this makes every difference in the WORLD & I hope to represent team USA well this week.”
And for curious followers, Fraley confirmed on Friday that she “paid (her) rent this morning” with a bevy of grateful emojis.
Fraley will compete in the discus throw qualifier Friday afternoon. In a post sharing her GoFundMe page, she said she plans to tackle a world championship in 2025 and, eventually, the 2028 Summer Games.
A representative for Vanderbilt University referred CNN to a statement in which the school said it “is committed to supporting our student-athletes as they pursue their full potential.”
“We provided our student-athlete Veronica Fraley with the maximum financial aid consistent with NCAA regulations,” the statement read. “We also help our student-athletes navigate name, image and likeness (NIL) opportunities, acknowledging that these are completely separate and independent of the university by NCAA regulations and state law.”
Flavor Flav and Alexis Ohanian are showing up for women’s sports
Flav has been one of the most consistent and vocal supporters of women athletes at the Paris Olympics. He sprung into action earlier this year when he learned that several players on the US women’s water polo team were working multiple jobs to support themselves. Now, he sponsors both the US men’s and women’s water polo teams.
“Hopefully this will open up the door for other celebrities to do what I’m doing and come and sponsor some of these Olympic teams,” he told “Today” in an interview from the Games. “When people aren’t really out here competing, they’re home, working … There’s nothing wrong with coming in and giving that little extra push.”
Ohanian, too, has backed women’s sports as a fan and financier. (He’s married to all-time tennis great Serena Williams, after all, and credits her as “the prototype for how you can show women’s sports is … on the same level as men’s.”) The venture capitalist has invested in Angel City FC, Los Angeles’ professional women’s soccer team, and is hosting an event for women runners later this year with a $60,000 prize.
Athletes aren’t paid to compete at the Olympics, though some countries offer cash prizes for medaling. So Ohanian proposed a challenge: If the runners who were competing at both his event and the Olympics won a gold medal in Paris, he’d pay them $60,000 ahead of his own race.
