Rowing: Kiwi Manson takes to OnlyFans to keep rowing career afloat

PARIS: While many athletes scrabble for sponsors to keep their Olympic dreams afloat, gay rower Robbie Manson has taken a novel approach by setting himself up on the adults-only OnlyFans website.

The 34-year-old New Zealander told Reuters that the revenue from the subscription-based service used for publishing adult-themed content had vastly increased his income. 

"I get more than double what I would be on otherwise as an athlete - read into that what you will, but I am making more from OnlyFans than I am from rowing at this stage," he said on Wednesday.  

“I thought, if I'm going to do it, you have to tell everyone, be really open and I think you need to feel that any publicity is good publicity.”

Manson was speaking the day before his Olympic men's double sculls final together with Jordan Parry, and said he had been inspired to create a profile on the website by Australian diver Matthew Mitchum, whose Olympic gold in the Beijing Games was the first won by an openly gay athlete. 

“The fact that I’m gay, I have the gay following and the audience already, and I’m slightly leaning into that. I wouldn't say it's for everyone, (but) for other athletes, there’s definitely an opportunity there,” he said. 

Asked what kind of content he put behind the OnlyFans paywall, Manson did not want to give too much away. 

“Artistic nudes - I don't want to say too much more than that, I think people need to subscribe if they want to know what's exactly on there," he said. 

"But in the captions, I just try to give people a little bit of an update from time to time, like what's going on in my life or training or journey to this point, towards the Olympics.”

Manson said that there were some nerves before he made his first post on the site. 

“I guess a