Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Flavor Flav helps Olympic discus thrower Veronica Fraley who said she struggles to pay the rent

Vanderbilt's discus thrower and Olympian Veronica Fraley lamented on social media she needed help with rent

Pat Graham
Friday 02 August 2024 05:01 EDT
Olympians Warmup Songs
Olympians Warmup Songs (Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

Your support helps us to tell the story

As your White House correspondent, I ask the tough questions and seek the answers that matter.

Your support enables me to be in the room, pressing for transparency and accountability. Without your contributions, we wouldn't have the resources to challenge those in power.

Your donation makes it possible for us to keep doing this important work, keeping you informed every step of the way to the November election

Head shot of Andrew Feinberg

Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

Vanderbilt's discus thrower and Olympian Veronica Fraley lamented on social media that she needed help paying the rent.

Hip-hop artist Flavor Flav and entrepreneur Alexis Ohanian decided to help.

Soon after Fraley posted on the social media platform, X, that she was in need of financial assistance, Flav, founding member of the hip-hop group Public Enemy and a big fan of USA Water Polo, responded: “I gotchu.”

Right on top that, Ohanian, the co-founder of Reddit and husband of tennis star Serena Williams, wrote: “Got you!” He followed through, too, by posting a picture of paying $7,760.00 and writing, "’Murica.”

In her post, Fraley alluded to the fact that her school pays about 75% of her rent while “they pay football players (who haven’t won anything) enough to buy new cars and houses." She added three “thumbs-down” emojis. 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 U.S. Olympic track trials.

She also started a GoFundMe page that has raised $12,041 of her $20,000 goal. She appreciated the gesture of Flav and Ohanian and wrote: “THANKYOU & @FlavorFlav SO MUCH. This makes every difference in the WORLD & I hope to represent team USA well this week."

Flav said he will be rooting for her and added “LETZ GO,!!!” The rapper 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 U.S. captain Maggie Steffens on Instagram in May.

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.”

___

AP Summer Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in