Matthew Mitcham, who is the first openly gay gold medal winner, defended his decision to join OnlyFans.
“The world can be very prudish,” the retired diver, 36, wrote in an op-ed for The Telegraph published on Monday, July 29. “It feels like people like to shame athletes who show off their bodies, even though there’s usually no full-frontal nudity involved.”
Mitcham represented Australia in the 2008 Beijing Olympics and publicly came out as gay ahead of the games. He brought home the gold medal for 10m platform diving. The athlete, who retired in 2016, shared that he decided to get involved in OnlyFans recently since his income “has slowed down” since.
“My attitude — as a former Olympic Champion who has been posting content on OnlyFans for 18 months — is that it’s a useful way of supplementing income,” he penned. “After all the hours and sacrifice we’ve put in, we athletes have more than earned the odd side hustle.”
In addition to OnlyFans, Mitcham shared he also generates an income by doing “corporate speaking” and “other roles” but OnlyFans helps him “get by.” He explained he approached the platform with “an abundance of caution” and has not shown full-frontal nudity on his page.
“The harsh truth of sport is that a small percentage of athletes make it big. Those people might be rewarded with lots of juicy sponsorships, but we’re talking about only the most beautiful and charismatic of Olympic champions,” Mitcham shared. “A lot of brilliant performers get left behind.”
Mitcham defended fellow Olympian Jack Laugher who also has an OnlyFans. Laugher, 29, is a British diver who competed in the 2012, 2016 and 2020 Olympics. He was the first to win the gold medal for diving for Great Britain and he is currently competing at the 2024 Olympics in Paris. Laugher has been candid about how he joined the platform to earn some extra cash.
“I read that Jack was earning £28,000 from Team GB, which is not a lot for a sportsperson of his standing, and [that] explains why he is looking to supplement his income,” Mitcham explained. “Having said that, it’s still better remuneration than what I remember us receiving in Australia.”
While many Olympics athletes have turned to OnlyFans, Mitcham shared that doesn’t mean they’ll find success on the platform.
“In this business, being a successful athlete doesn’t automatically guarantee success on the site,” he said. “We’re talking about a very visual medium. If you’re hot and you market yourself effectively and regularly, you can attract a lot of interest. The real bonus of being an Olympic champion is that you have a bigger following on other social channels like Instagram and X/Twitter. The more people you can promote yourself to, the more people are likely to follow you on your paid channel.”
Mitcham acknowledged that there is a “stigma attached to modeling on OnlyFans.” However, he doesn’t see the harm in others joining so they can have financial stability.
“There’s no logical reason why sharing tailored content with a specific group of supportive, liberal fans should affect an athlete’s ability to appeal to the mainstream,” he shared. “Let’s hear it for the mavericks, I say.”
