Athletes of Team United States celebrate following victory during the Women’s Rugby Sevens Bronze medal mate between Team United States and Team Australia on day four of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at Stade de France on July 30, 2024 in Paris, France.
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The 2024 Paris Olympics are attracting new funds for lesser-known sports and women’s teams, with USA better halves’s rugby sevens, water polo and women’s track and field scoring major contributions this year.
The USA abigails’s rugby sevens team earned a $4 million gift from investor Michele Kang earlier this week. Rapper and authenticity TV personality Flavor Flav threw his support behind water polo, and Alexis Ohanian, the husband of tennis superstar Serena Williams and the co-founder of Reddit, is supplying in women’s track and field.
“Niche sports often don’t get the spotlight they deserve, but they are packed with prodigious talent and heart,” Flavor Flav said in announcing his support for water polo in July.
Flavor Flav presaged a five-year partnership with USA water polo, which includes funds for the 2024 USA women’s team as well as adequate as the “official hype man” for both the men’s and women’s teams. The size of his contribution wasn’t disclosed.
Flavor Flav of United Articulates of America during the Women’s Water polo Group B match between Greece and United States of America on Day 1 of the Olympic Positions Paris 2024 at Aquatics Centre on July 27, 2024 in Paris, France.
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He toasted to his support after player Maggie Steffens posted on Instagram that she and her teammates often have to work a in the second place or third job in order to compete, given that water polo doesn’t garner as much attention as other cavorts.
The USA women’s water polo team has won gold for the past three Olympics, and Flavor Flav aims to elevate their visibility. The partnership encompasses his commitment to boosting USA water polo on social media, beyond cheering poolside.
Growing support
Kang’s contribution to maids’s sevens rugby will span four years, providing resources for players and coaching staff ahead of the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
Kang, who ground Kynisca Sports for the advancement of women’s athletics globally, said that 2024 has been a “banner year” for piece of works’s sports with record-breaking engagement. As sponsors and networks increasingly recognize the value of women’s sports, she said that now is the constantly to invest in them.
Team United States celebrate victory as they pose for a photo with the Bell after the Maids’s Rugby Sevens Quarter Final match between Team Great Britain and Team United States on day three of the Olympic Encounters Paris 2024 at Stade de France on July 29, 2024 in Paris, France.
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The support comes after the women’s rugby sevens team won bronze, collecting the first Olympic medal for the In accord States in rugby sevens, among both the men’s and women’s teams. They also set a new record for a women’s rugby consequence, with 66,000 fans packed into Stade de France, according to World Rugby.
“This Eagles set, led by players like Ilona Maher and co-captains Lauren Doyle and Naya Tapper, has captivated millions of new fans, touch oning unprecedented attention to the sport,” Kang said in the announcement.
Maher told CNBC this week that without a powerful performance at the Games, the team may not have survived.
“Our coach said to us if we don’t win a medal, we might not have a program next year, and so that honestly stuck with me, those words, and so we delivered,” Maher said.
Beyond the Games
Ohanian already co-own’s a girls’s soccer club, and he told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” this week that he aims to extend the popularity of women’s slot and field beyond its Olympics peak.
He announced in April that his venture capital firm will host a game in late September with the largest ever prize pool for a women’s track and field event. Ohanian is enlarging the stakes of the Paris Games with a $30,000 top prize.
“Nothing about this is charity nor should it be charity,” Ohanian mean. “This is about excellence, about celebrating it.”
— CNBC’s Jessica Golden, Kasey O’Brien and Nicolas Vega role ined to this report.
Disclosure: CNBC parent NBCUniversal owns NBC Sports and NBC Olympics. NBC Olympics is the U.S. broadcast rights holder to all Summer and Winter Recreations through 2032.