New Delhi: In a rare case, Great Britain divers have turned to adult subscription website OnlyFans to fund their Paris Olympics 2024 dream. While Jack Laugher has been sharing their semi-naked content on OnlyFans since September 2021, his teammate Noah Williams registered on the site last year. Laugher is also a gold medallist from the 2016 Olympics in Rio.
Diving in Great Britain doesn’t yield much financial assistance, unlike other sports. The idea of earning extra cash from Onlyfans first came from Laugher’s father. Despite people might negatively take his side income, Laugher doesn’t shy away from speaking about it publicly.
“I have something that people want and I’ll happily try and sell that,” the 29-year-old was quoted as saying by Mail Sport. “My dad was saying to me, ‘You put stuff out on Instagram for free, but when the product is free, like Instagram is, you are the product’.
“So now I’m giving people stuff which is very similar to what I post, but it’s for a small subscription fee. It’s a really, really good way for me to make some extra cash,” added Laugher, who makes 28,000 pounds (roughly Rs 30 lakhs) a year.
Laugher admitted that he is comfortable with what he is doing. “It clearly states on my profile there is no nudity. I’m not trying to make myself out to be something I’m not. I’ve always liked modelling and I’m about a foot too short to be a proper underwear model, probably about five out of 10 missing on the scale of how good-looking I am as well,” he added.
“Just like in most Olympic sports, there isn’t a lot of money in diving. We’ve all just seen Wimbledon and the prize pot for winning that is extraordinary. If you go out in the first round you get more (£60,000) than I make in a whole year as a funded athlete,” said Laugher, talking reality of a GB diver.
Laugher started with a funding of 21,000 pounds for the top eight in the world as a 16-year-old. More than ten years after that, Laugher saw an increase of just 7000 pounds. Laugher charges 7.75 pounds (Rs 835) a month from his subscribers and also makes ‘tips’. The post that earned him most ‘tips’ was a video of him showering in his underwear in April. It earned him 341 pounds (Rs 36,765) in ‘tips.
Laugher is not the only athlete from Paris Olympics 2024 to use OnlyFans. Canadian pole vaulter Alysha Newman is also on the site. Meanwhile, Team Great Britain said that they do not have any issues with Laugher and Williams on the adult subscription site.
