Rapper Flavor Flav and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian have stepped up to help an Olympic athlete pay her rent.
The two came to the aid of track and field athlete Veronica Fraley, a graduate student at Vanderbilt, on Thursday after she wrote on X about the bigger struggles she was facing outside of her upcoming Olympic debut.
“I compete in the Olympic Games TOMORROW and can’t even pay my rent,” Fraley wrote on the social media platform. “my school only sent about 75% of my rent while they pay football players (who haven’t won anything) enough to buy new cars and houses.”
Fraley, 24, is the 2024 NCAA discus champion and has been getting a second master’s degree from Vanderbilt.
Her post — which also took a shot at the school’s football program — quickly got the attention of the public, first with Flavor Flav responding followed by Ohanian, the husband of tennis legend Serena Williams.
The two jockeyed to quickly send her the funds in an effort to help her focus on her upcoming competition.
Fraley is competing in the women’s discus throw on Friday alongside Melany Matheus of Cuba, Chioma Onyekwere of Nigeria and Claudine Vita of Germany in Group B.
“I gotchu,,, DM me and I’ll send payment TODAY so you don’t have to worry bout it TOMORROW,” replied Flavor Flav, who has been a massive supporter of the American women’s water polo team during the Olympics. “And imma be rooting for ya tomorrow LETZ GO,!!!”
It was shortly after that Ohanian jumped in to help.
“C’mon now! I’ll split it with @flavorfav,” he wrote on X.
Ohanian later shared a screenshot of the Venmo transaction showing that he sent Farley $7,760 and a rep for the former Public Enemy founding member and hypeman confirmed to NBC News that Flavor Flav had also sent money to Farley to help her out.
The rep told the outlet that Flavor Flav is “happy to help out those who are representing the best of us. This is exactly why I’m in Paris and the awareness I’ve been trying to bring to these athletes’ needs.”
Flavor Flav has become a staple at the Summer Games in Paris, cheering on the U.S. women’s water polo team, which he sponsored after seeing a social media post by captain Maggie Steffens describing how many Olympians need to have second jobs supporting their dreams.
Fraley thanked both men in a follow-up post on X.
“THANK YOU & @FlavorFlav SO MUCH,” she wrote in a post back to Ohanian, “this makes every difference in the WORLD & I hope to represent team USA well this week.”
She also clarified that her frustration wasn’t with the school, but rather “the rules that bar me from making the amount I’m WORTH as a collegiate athlete such as NIL which favors popularity over performance. that’s all I’m sayin.”
Fraley finished with a bronze medal in the women’s discus throw final at the U.S. trials in late June.