Topline
Rapper Flavor Flav and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, both vocal supporters of women’s sports, put their money where their mouths are Thursday morning when they stepped in to help Olympic discus player Veronica Fraley pay her rent one day before she competes in the Paris games, filling a financial gap she says can be partially blamed on college name, image and likeness policies that “favor popularity over performance.”
Veronica Fraley competes in the women’s discus throw at the 2024 U.S. Olympic Team Track & Field … [+]
Key Facts
Fraley, a track and field athlete at Vanderbilt University, posted to X, formerly known as Twitter, on Thursday that she’ll compete in the Olympics on Friday yet “can’t even pay my rent.”
Hours later, Flavor Flav, whose real name is William Drayton Jr., responded with a promise to send the needed money “TODAY so you don’t have to worry bout it TOMORROW.”
Ohanian quickly followed up, promising to split any costs with the rapper and later posting a screenshot from a $7,760 Venmo transaction with the note “‘MURICA 🇺🇸🥇.”
In her initial post, Fraley said “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.”
She then followed up to confirm that she wasn’t upset with Vanderbilt, but with “the rules that bar me from making the amount I’m WORTH as a collegiate athlete such as NIL which favors popularity over performance.”
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Key Background
Fraley is the latest athlete to benefit from the generosity of Flavor Flav this Olympic season. The 65-year-old performer has dubbed himself the “official hype man” of USA Water Polo weeks after announcing he would sponsor both the women’s and men’s national teams for the next five years. The deal includes an unspecified financial contribution, multiple appearances per year at the sport’s events—”bringing his signature energy and enthusiasm to the poolside”—and social media collaboration. Flavor Flav first connected with the women’s water polo team in May after athlete Maggie Steffens posted to Instagram about how hard she and her teammates have to work to make a living despite being three-time Olympic gold medalists. The post, and subsequent sponsorship, shined a light on the challenges many athletes in lesser-known sports face to monetize their performances. The conversation has been furthered this year by U.S. rugby player Ilona Maher, who has launched a successful TikTok career and has acknowledged her social media pursuits are part of a larger effort to build a personal brand and help her “make sports a career.”
American Rapper, Flavor Flav, shows his support during the Women’s Preliminary Round Group B match … [+]
Crucial Quote
“As a girl dad and supporter of all women’s sports – imma personally sponsor you my girl,,, whatever you need,” Flavor Flav commented on Steffen’s post. “My manager is in touch with your agent and imma use all my relationships and resources to help all y’all even more. That’s a FLAVOR FLAV promise.”
Tangent
The National Collegiate Athletics Association changed its eligibility requirements in 2021 to allow players to accept money from sponsors and still play on a college team. Some popular athletes have benefited greatly from the rule changes—LSU gymnast Olivia Dunne and Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders have signed deals worth millions of dollars—but others haven’t seen the same benefits.
Surprising Fact
Fraley was named the 2024 SEC Field Athlete of the Year, 2024 SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year, is a two-time qualifier for the World Athletics Championships and won bronze in discus at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials. The Vanderbilt Commodores football team hasn’t made a bowl game since the 2018 season and finished the 2023 season last in the Southeastern Conference with a conference record of 0-8 and an overall record of 2-10.
Further Reading
Mary Roeloffs is a Forbes reporter who covers breaking news with a frequent focus on the entertainment industry, streaming, sports news, publishing, pop culture and climate change. She joined Forbes in 2023 and lives in Dallas. She’s covered Netflix’s hottest documentaries, a surge of assaults reported on social media, the most popular books of the year and how climate change stands to impact the way we eat. Roeloffs was included on Editor & Publisher Magazine’s “ 25 Under 30” list in 2023 and worked covering local news in the greater Boston area from 2017 to 2023. She graduated with a double major in political science and journalism from Northeastern University. Follow Roeloffs for continued coverage of streaming wars, pop culture news and trending topics.
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