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Qualifying for the Olympics takes discipline, talent, years of training and a commitment to excellence. In some cases, a trust fund also seems to help.
A couple of children of billionaires are competing in the 2024 Paris Olympics. The two — as well as at least one billionaire son-in-law — are representing countries in notably bougie sports realms.
Emma Navarro and Jessica Pegula are both competing in tennis representing Team USA, while Nayel Nassar, Bill Gates' son-in-law, is competing as an equestrian for Team Egypt.
Twenty-three-year-old Navarro, whose father Ben is worth $1.5 billion, made headlines earlier this year when she reached the Wimbledon quarter-finals, beating Coco Gauff, the world's No. 2 player.
Navarro grew up in Charleston, South Carolina, where her investor father has spent more than $350 million, per Forbes, scooping up real estate. He's also shelled out to support his daughter's passion. In 2022, his Beemok Capital acquired Cincinatti's Western and Southern Open, the country's third-biggest tournament.
Meantime, Pegula, who was once ranked No. 3 in the world, is headed to her second Olympics, having competed in 2020. The thirty-year-old is entering the games just months after winning the Berlin Ladies Open.
Her father, Terrence Pegula, is worth $6.8 billion, according to Forbes, and is no stranger to sports. After making money in oil and gas, he bought the NHL's Buffalo Sabres and the NFL's Buffalo Bills, purchasing the latter for $1.4 billion in 2014.
The husband of Jennifer Gates Nassar — Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates' eldest daughter — will be competing in his second Olympic games after placing 24th in equestrian jumping in 2020. With Gates Nassar, he runs a collection of training facilities, Evergate Stables, headquartered in equestrian hot spot Wellington, Florida.
Equestrian has long been a popular sport for the wealthy — with top horses costing millions and maintaining them costing hundreds of thousands more each year. Anna Kasprzak, a Danish heiress of a billion-dollar fortune, placed 14th in the 2016 Olympics. Other billionaire offspring like Eve Jobs, Gates Nassar, and Georgina Bloomberg have all competed seriously in the sport.
And there will be at least one self-made billionaire taking center court: LeBron James, who is worth $1.2 billion, according to Forbes, making him the richest competitor — at least for now.
