With Olympians making headlines for some pretty outrageous prizes, it’s easy to believe that all medalists are set for life. However, not every champion’s career is paved with gold—just ask Daniella Ramirez.
Despite landing a coveted spot on the U.S. women’s synchronized swimming team and winning a silver medal for her country in the 2024 Paris Olympics, just months later Ramirez had to turn to a side hustle to pay the bills.
“I get just enough to cover my rent a month,” she told the BBC. “It’s not enough to be a career and this is a full-time job.”
The 24-year-old previously revealed that she trains from 6:30 am to 2:30 pm at a minimum—even on weekends—leaving little room for a nine-to-five gig.
Enter, influencing.
Like many Gen Zers, Ramirez turned to social media content creation as a side gig during the pandemic. Now, it pays more than being an Olympian does.
“On social media, I can make more than 5x as much as what I make as an Olympic athlete each month,” Ramirez told Fortune.
“I only just started getting paid as an athlete 3 years ago, and I’ve been on the national team for 8 years.”
Ramirez has racked up nearly 550,000 followers on TikTok alone, and millions of people are tuning into so-called “ASMR” videos of her peeling the gel coating off of her slick performance-ready hairdo.
“My primary job right now—the thing that makes the most money—is definitely TikTok, Instagram, and all my social media handles,” she told the BBC.
“You can do things on your own time, on your own schedule, make ends meet, and get to do your sport full-time.”
Most Olympians don’t make money from their sport
Mainstream athletes like Simone Biles can make millions from sponsorship deals. Meanwhile, a few lucky lesser-known athletes like Philippines gymnast Carlos Yulo may be set for life with a fully furnished $555,000 condo, over $200,000 in cash, and a lifetime supply of ramen to go with his medals if they are one of the rare medalists in their country’s history.
However, most Olympians don’t get lavished with these kinds of offers.
Despite being the first American woman to medal in both the Summer and Winter Olympics, the track and bobsled star Lauryn Williams echoed Ramirez’ frustration, saying her phone wasn’t exactly buzzing with work opportunities, either.
“The news coverage came, but the sponsors didn’t,” revealed Williams.
“There’s this misconception that because I’m the first to do this thing—and still no one else has done it—that I’m booked all year long for speaking engagements … I get things here or there, but I can’t make a living from it,” she said.
Like Ramirez, she’s had to turn to alternative work to make ends meet—and they’re far from alone.
A 2020 survey of 500 Olympic-level athletes across 48 countries found that 58% didn’t consider themselves “financially stable” with respondents complaining they have to live off “casual work” instead of their sport.
The International Olympic Committee doesn’t provide prize money to participants or medal winners. Instead, it’s up to individual countries and the governing bodies of their sports to award prize money, if any.
U.S. athletes that take home a gold medal receive $37,500, for example, with silver earning $22,500 and bronze $15,000 (British athletes do not receive any cash bonus for their wins at all). But those awards pale when compared to the lifestyle and work ethic needed to perform at that level.
“The Prize money from the competition does help a lot, but many times it won’t come in for a while, even sometimes more than 6 months after a competition has finished,” Ramirez told Fortune.
“I can sympathize with any other athlete struggling to deal with the financial burden of training full-time,” she added. “My advice would be to use social media as a way to showcase the coolest things or even just the quirkiest thing about your sport. People love to be behind the scenes—and you never know.”
A version of this story originally published on Fortune.com on August 28, 2024
