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Olympians turn to OnlyFans to fund dreams due to 'broken' finance system (2024)

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Re: Olympians turn to OnlyFans to fund dreams due to 'broken' finance system (2024)

#351
post #130
post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know where the argument comes from, but at an extreme watching football with 22 folks running behind a ball in a slow game where 97% of the time nothing happens in terms of scoring, and in terms of tactics, today sounds like a handball game; it's boring (and I say that as a Brazilian and having attended more than 100+ in the stadium and more than 600 on TV). The entertainment in the Olympic games is in the fact tha…

How do you pick a number as specific as 600? I have absolutely no idea how many football games I've ever watched.

How is 600 more specific than any other number?

Re: Olympians turn to OnlyFans to fund dreams due to 'broken' finance system (2024)

#352
post #106

Being a former athlete (100/200 meters), the issue is that the top-tier sports (e.g., football, volleyball, basketball, etc.) capture the majority of money/value, and if you are from javelin throwing, fencing, or racewalking, unless you have a great sponsor, it will definitely require personal sacrifices to make it to the games. In Brazil a very long time ago, there was a gigantic tug of war between the top-tier spor…

Fencing as done now looks legit stupid, so does racewalking. Javelin, while slightly more cool, is you throwing a stick. Mildly interesting for a few seconds. Football is a top tier sport because it's entertaining. People will pay to see it. Hence there's money to be earned. If someone wants to spend their time seeing how far they can throw a stick, cool, but they shouldn't be surprised they're waking up to an empty…

That's all purely a social construct - e.g. almost nobody on the planet outside the US watches football (or Cricket in the UK/India, or ...). Football is a thing in the US because it is a thing in the US: You can bond with your peers around it. The objective technicalities of the sport itself have nothing to do with it.

Re: Olympians turn to OnlyFans to fund dreams due to 'broken' finance system (2024)

#353
post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would assume that not everyone with a "great body" would want to do stripping and I don't think it is a "no brainer" at all. Problem with many sports is that they just don't earn enough money, which mostly is in advertising, and that doing it professionally is rather costly.

100% I'd strip. Putting that much toil in I'd want maximum compensation

Why would you be compensated for removing the whitespace on either end of a string?

Re: Olympians turn to OnlyFans to fund dreams due to 'broken' finance system (2024)

#354

It's fine when Sports Illustrated does it- that's a legitimate publication that will subtly hide the most interesting bits and retain all the money from advertising and sales. When an athlete does it directly and retains the money themselves, that's a disgrace.

> When an athlete does it directly and retains the money themselves, that's a disgrace.

I'm not getting the feeling that the article is trying to say it's a disgrace, but it's aimed at that it's a disgrace that the executives are getting all the money while the athletes sees basically none of that.

Reading around, it seems like the common opinion on it, but like everyone else, I too have somewhat of a bubble so might look different in other mainstream outlets I suppose.

Re: Olympians turn to OnlyFans to fund dreams due to 'broken' finance system (2024)

#355

System working as designed? Like, if your hobby is throwing a disc as far as you can, have fun. But don't expect many people to pay to watch right? But people pay a whole lot to see nice bodies doing sexual stuff. So since money comes from what other people value, no need for a surprised Pikachu face.

> if your hobby "Olympians" representing their countries. - Is your hobby "to create software"? Then you should not be paid for it. - Do you like to help peolpe? Then you should not be paid for being a doctor. - etc. Who should earn all the money then? The owners of the TV stations, the owners of the hospitals, basically the people that does nothing and just own things. What a dystopia of a world are we creating.

> Who should earn all the money then?

The people doing the jobs that no-one wants to do. The garbagemen, the plumbers, the cleaners. And/or the people who do stuff that other people value, that people will pay to have it done well rather than badly.

If you're doing something fun, something that other people would very happily do for free, then yeah you shouldn't feel entitled to get paid for it. If you're good at your hobby and people care about it, they might pay you to do it (and I'd absolutely count software development among that), but that's up to them.

Re: Olympians turn to OnlyFans to fund dreams due to 'broken' finance system (2024)

#356

System working as designed? Like, if your hobby is throwing a disc as far as you can, have fun. But don't expect many people to pay to watch right? But people pay a whole lot to see nice bodies doing sexual stuff. So since money comes from what other people value, no need for a surprised Pikachu face.

> if your hobby "Olympians" representing their countries. - Is your hobby "to create software"? Then you should not be paid for it. - Do you like to help peolpe? Then you should not be paid for being a doctor. - etc. Who should earn all the money then? The owners of the TV stations, the owners of the hospitals, basically the people that does nothing and just own things. What a dystopia of a world are we creating.

Those aren't hobbies. I'm not saying don't enjoy what you do. But if you want good money you're going to have to consider its value to others.

Re: Olympians turn to OnlyFans to fund dreams due to 'broken' finance system (2024)

#357
post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m biased because I’ve practiced fencing for a long time, but you keep saying it’s dumb without explaining why. First of all, which weapon do you refer to? Foil, epee or saber? They look quite different. Saber is very fast and might look as you say, both fencers jumping quickly to each other to get their right of way and score. Epee looks quite different, there’s no right of way and the score target is the whole bod…

So a layman like me finds it instinctively dumb for the following reasons. If I watch the hundred meter sprint, I kind of get it. They're aiming to run super fast. It's a relatable activity. See it in the movies. Would do it if a dog is chasing you. Swimming - crocodile chasing you. Javelin, they're chucking a spear really far - not so useful now, but I get it. People used to do that to fight or hunt. Others, like po…

As a different layman, your objections seem ridiculous and might be summarised as “I would prefer to watch professional wrestling or a stage fighting demonstration in which the actors are trained to strongly emote the storyline of the action to the audience.”

Or, “I prefer sports which uninterested parties can easily understand.” Nothing you’ve said speaks to objective entertainment value.

Re: Olympians turn to OnlyFans to fund dreams due to 'broken' finance system (2024)

#358

In the early 1990s a paddler named Eric Jackson was fast enough to make the U.S. Olympic team in whitewater slalom kayak. But he lacked funds to go. So he dressed up in his full paddling outfit and brought his boat (4m long in those days) and paddle to a street corner in downtown DC. He set up a “meet an Olympian” sign and charged people cash to have their picture taken with him. Much hustle, very entrepreneurial of…

"You're on the team, but you have to fund your own trip to the Olympics to compete." ... "No not like that!" Never knew if it was real but I've seen on reddit several times that letter someone got from their employer chastising them for not owning a newer, nicer vehicle, since they were making good money at their job and it was "hurting the reputation of the business" that they were driving effectively a poor person'…

It's funny, I drive a 22 year old car, by far the oldest at my workplace parking. I've been talking about getting a newer car but haven't been able to bring myself to spend 35K on one. It's running joke in the office, colleagues will ask if I've bought the new car yet every week.

Re: Olympians turn to OnlyFans to fund dreams due to 'broken' finance system (2024)

#359
post #258

System working as designed? Like, if your hobby is throwing a disc as far as you can, have fun. But don't expect many people to pay to watch right? But people pay a whole lot to see nice bodies doing sexual stuff. So since money comes from what other people value, no need for a surprised Pikachu face.

Average people, no. People most definitely pay to watch olympians. In fact, they spend thousands of dollars to travel across the world to do so. Whether this can be a career depends on the specific sport.

People travel around the world and pay a lot to see a small handful of big-name sports. The long tail of olympic events is watched mostly by people who came for the big-name sports (or lived there already) and figured they might as well catch something else while they were in town.

Re: Olympians turn to OnlyFans to fund dreams due to 'broken' finance system (2024)

#360

Funny how "not getting paid" went from being a requirement [1] to being a scandal. Maybe, the government could make an agency that will employ them all and pay them a wage. Of course, it would only be fair that, if all the downside is taken up by the agency, then it will also get all the upside. Meaning: If any agency athlete starts raking in millions in sponsorship deals, then those millions will go to the agency, a…

IDK, to me there’s a difference between “not full-time employed as an athlete” and “not helped with expenses for participating in the Olympics”
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