There is the table tennis player who didn’t get enough financial support back home. The discus thrower who couldn’t make rent. The badminton player who needed help to continue her journey to Paris.
Several dozen athletes have used crowdfunding to help pay for their costs to prepare for the and compete in France, with GoFundMe saying more than $2 million was raised worldwide in the run-up to the Games. American discus thrower raised more than $23,000 on GoFundMe, with most of the donations coming after she posted on X that she couldn’t pay her rent and entrepreneur Alexis Ohanian and rapper Flavor Flav decided to help, attracting more attention — and more funds — to her cause. Badminton player got nearly $22,000 to help in the preparations for her mixed doubles participation in Paris.
“This absolutely wouldn’t have been possible without everyone’s support,” Gai said on her GoFundMe page. “Your donations relieved a lot of financial burden in planning our tournaments and training, which allowed me to focus fully on the Olympic race. I am incredibly grateful for each and every one of your contributions.
” American table tennis player Kanak Jha raised more than $30,000 to help cover the costs for training, travel, accommodation and hiring a private coach. “I started to GoFundMe just to participate in these Games. And I’m really grateful for everyone who supported,” Jha told The Associated Press.
“Everything given there was spent solely on the preparati.