Featured Image Credit: Getty Images/Hannah Peters/Anthony Au-Yeung
Topics: Money, New Zealand, Olympics, OnlyFans, Sport
Niamh Shackleton
Topics: Money, New Zealand, Olympics, OnlyFans, Sport
An Olympian has opened up about their unexpected side hustle that earns them twice as much money as their sporting career.
Depending on which country a person is representing in the Olympics depends on how much they get paid.
For example, athletes from Singapore will receive a whopping $745,000 if they win a gold medal for their country, while those in Team USA get $38,000.
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Most athletes won't get a salary during their Olympic journey and the run-up to it, so they may turn to sponsorships as a means of generating extra cash.
But going against the grain is New Zealand, which reportedly pays its athletes on a yearly basis.
According to the Economic Research Institute, the average salary range for a Professional Athlete is between NZD 47,097 and NZD 76,862.
This falls under the average salary bracket for someone in New Zealand.
In terms of medals, New Zealand structures its payouts as yearly bonuses, with gold medallists receiving $40,000 annually until the next games, Sky News reports.
While New Zealand is best known for its rowing success, having achieved 29 medals for the sport over the years, rower Robbie Manson has taken up extracurricular activities to keep himself afloat (no pun intended).
Manson has recently revealed that he has started his own OnlyFans page - and it's already proving pretty successful.
"I get more than double what I would be on 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, as per NBC News.
"I thought, if I’m going to do it, you have to tell everyone, be really open and I think you need to feel that any publicity is good publicity."
Manson, who is openly gay, went on to say that he already has a large gay following so thought he would 'lean into it'.
"I wouldn’t say it’s for everyone, (but) for other athletes, there’s definitely an opportunity there," he went on.
And Manson isn't the only Olympian on the platform; British Olympians Jack Laugher and Elise Christie are also on OnlyFans.
Like New Zealand, British athletes do not get a direct cash reward for medals at the Games.
Christie, a retired short track speed skater, credited OnlyFans for 'saving her life'.
"I went from being someone who won medals under a system to then having absolutely nothing and just being dropped out and left to understand life," she told The Telegraph.
"I had lost my house and was working three jobs at the time…[OnlyFans] brought me back from a really dark place, and I now use it positively."
You gotta' do what you gotta' do!