Prominent Mexican diver Diego Balleza is hoping selling steamy pics online will help him achieve his dream of competing in the Olympics a second time.
Balleza, a 10-meter synchronized diver who placed fourth at the Tokyo Olympics, launched an OnlyFans account to support his athletic training for the 2024 Summer Games in Paris after the head of Mexico’s national sports commission cut funding to all aquatics athletes.
The toned diver — who is used to wearing skimpy swimsuits in front of large crowds and cameras — said he figured the subscription-based platform where users sell content would help him supplement his income.
“I support my house and my mother, and I have bills to pay, and you can upload whatever you want in there, it’s a valid content,” Balleza said in an interview with The Associated Press. “I am happy that the people who are in my page have been very good and respectful, I hope they continue like this.”
The 28-year-old athlete charges $15 a month for fans to access his private content and also offers three-month, six-month and 12-month subscriptions up to $135.
“The money I now receive [from OnlyFans] is very volatile, but it has served me well so far,” he said.
He’s hoping the money from subscriptions will replace the $1,708 government scholarship he had received before the funds were cut off in January
In addition to OnlyFans, Balleza has received some money from the private sector as well as from the state government of Nuevo León.
“This situation is a bit tedious because in the end you are not 100% focused on what you have to do,” he said of the hustle to raise funds. “But nothing is impossible, we already have flights and logistics for the world championships. Now we have to train hard and go a get those Olympic spots.”
The government funds were held back due to an internal dispute between World Aquatics and Ana Guevara, the head of Mexico’s national sports commission.
Guevara, angry over a leadership change involving the Mexican Swimming Federation, cut the allowance to all aquatics athletes in the country.
Swimmers, divers and other water sports players have tried to come up with creative solutions to make up the money on their own.
Other athletes have started selling coffee, swimsuits and towels to raise funds to prepare for the Paris Olympics.
Balleza’s synchronized diving partner, Kevin Berlin, created his own coffee brand called “Olimpiada Café,” which translates to Olympic Coffee.
The brand has been more successful than he first expected.
“At first we thought we would only sell it to family and friends, but then it started to go viral, and it reached more people,” Berlin told the AP. “You have to see the positive in things. Thanks to all the problems I had, we created a business that is doing well and perhaps it will be useful for the future. In sports you don’t know if an injury ends your career quickly.”
Berlin and Balleza will compete together at the world championships in Fukuoka, Japan next month for a chance to secure Mexico spots in the Paris Olympics next year.
Mexico’s artistic swimming team began selling swimsuits and towels on social media to support their Olympic dreams.
“There are 14 of us in the team so we need a lot of money to travel, but it all adds up. The swimsuits gave us an opportunity, but our parents still support us, there are donations, and, in the end, everything adds up in the fight for us to go to the Olympic Games,” said Jessica Sobrino, a member of the team who came up with the idea.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said he would try to find a way to help the athletes.
Balleza is not the first athlete to subsidize their Olympic dreams with a OnlyFans side hustle.
Romanian-Canadian Olympic speed skater Alexandra Ianculescu created an OnlyFans account in 2021 to support her goal of representing Canada as a cyclist at the Summer Games in Paris after hanging up her skates.
Ianculescu, a former personal trainer, sells bikini pics and uses the income for the cost of cycling training and equipment.
“I made an OnlyFans account in 2021,” she said. “… It’s helping me survive, pay my rent, pay for groceries, and it covers the cycling and the coffee bills!”
Ianculescu set a goal to be one of the few athletes to compete in both the Winter and Summer Games and training has left her no time to work as a personal trainer.
“It’s fully 100% OnlyFans because I didn’t have the time to do personal training anymore,” she said about her source of income.
With Post wires
