Discus thrower Veronica Fraley was able to focus on the Paris Olympics once her rent was paid after the American’s public plea for financial help led to her rescue by two surprising sources.
Hip-hop star Flavor Flav and Alexis Ohanian, the Reddit cofounder and husband of tennis great Serena Williams, split the cost of Fraley’s rent after her financial appeal.
However, their generosity could not help Fraley, who attends Vanderbilt University, reach the Olympic discus final, as she finished 13th in qualifying on Friday to miss the final by one spot.
Photo: Reuters
“I compete in the Olympic Games TOMORROW and can’t even pay my rent my school only sent about 75% of my rent while they pay football players (who haven’t won anything) enough to buy new cars and houses,” Fraley posted on X on Thursday.
The Commodores football team went 2-10 last season, while Fraley won the NCAA discus title this season, set the school record and earned a spot on Team USA at the US Olympic track trials.
The 65-year-old Flav, who also sponsors the US women’s water polo team, was quick to respond.
“I gotchu. DM me and I’ll send payment TODAY so you don’t have to worry bout it TOMORROW, and imma be rooting for ya tomorrow. LETZ GO,!!!” he wrote.
Ohanian chimed in less than 10 minutes later.
“C’mon now! I’ll split it with @flavorflav,” Ohanian wrote, and then posted less than two hours later: “Update! It is done.”
He posted again with a screenshot of a money transfer for US$7,760 to Fraley.
“Man of my word, and Imma try and come by and support you in person tomorrow. LMK what time,” Flav, the founding member of the US rap group Public Enemy, added.
Flav is in Paris as part of his duties as the official hype man for USA Water Polo — a partnership that came together after he connected with US captain Maggie Steffens on Instagram in May.
The 24-year-old Fraley’s original plea has 18 million views on X.
Ohanian is also promising to pay US$60,000 to any of the 36 athletes entered in his Athlos NYC women-only track meet on Sept. 26 if they win a gold medal in Paris. That is in addition to the US$60,000 the winners at his Athlos event would receive.
Fraley made sure to point out in a later post that her criticism wasn’t with Vanderbilt.
“Thanks for the supporting messages but I want to clarify my irritation isn’t with the school itself, mainly the rules that bar me from making the amount I’m WORTH as a collegiate athlete such as NIL which favors popularity over performance,” she wrote. “That’s all I’m sayin.”
Additional reporting by AP
By the time Cameron Menzies finally left the arena on Monday, the blood gushing from the gash on his right hand had trickled down his wrist, part of his forearm and — somehow — up to his face. Smeared in crimson and regret, and already mouthing sheepish apologies to the crowd, he disappeared down the steps, pursued by a stern-looking Matt Porter, the chief executive of Professional Darts Corp (PDC). The physical scars from Menzies’ encounter with the Alexandra Palace drinks table after his 3-2 defeat against Charlie Manby at the Darts World Championship would be gone within a few weeks.
Manchester United on Monday blew the lead three times to miss out on moving up to fifth in the Premier League as AFC Bournemouth would not be beaten in a thrilling 4-4 draw at Old Trafford. United have lost just once in their past 10 games, but Ruben Amorim would be frustrated as more points at home were frittered away despite arguably the best attacking display of his reign in charge. Amad Diallo and Casemiro gave the hosts a halftime lead either side of Antoine Semenyo’s equalizer. Two Bournemouth goals from Evanilson and Marcus Tavernier in seven minutes at the start of the
LOW-GOAL SHOOT-OUT: Of the nine penalties in the shoot-out, only three went in, with Flamengo’s Samuel Lino, and Vitinha and Nuno Mendes of PSG netting Matvei Safonov on Wednesday made four straight penalty saves in a penalty shoot-out to help Paris Saint-Germain beat Flamengo in the Intercontinental Cup final and win a sixth trophy of the year. The Russian goalkeeper was thrown in the air by his teammates after his exploits in the shoot-out, which was won 2-1 by PSG after a 1-1 draw after extra-time. It completed a trophy-laden 12 months for the French team, who had already won the Trophee des Champions, Ligue 1, the Coupe de France, the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Super Cup — also on penalties against Tottenham Hotspur in
LACKLUSTER FIGHT: At one stage, the referee lost patience with the two fighters, warning them in the fourth round that ‘the fans did not pay to see this crap’ Former world heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua on Friday knocked out YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul in their controversial Netflix-backed bout in Miami. The fight at the Kaseya Center, which saw both men reportedly splitting a mammoth purse of US$184 million, had triggered alarm across boxing due to the gulf in physical size and class between Britain’s two-time former world champion Joshua and Paul, an Internet personality who has forged a lucrative career through a handful of novelty boxing contests. However, in the event, Joshua made hard work of defeating his vastly less accomplished opponent, before his superior size and power eventually told
RSS