Mexican diver Diego Balleza opens OnlyFans account to pay for Olympics training

MEXICO CITY (AP) — As a prominent 10-meter diver, Diego Balleza is used to wearing small swimsuits that show off his body. Now, desperate because of a lack of financial resources ahead of next year's Paris Olympics, the Mexican is making a leap to a different platform in which he also wears few clothes: OnlyFans.

Balleza is one of several Mexican athletes who have been affected by a dispute between World Aquatics and Ana Guevara, the head of Mexico's national sports commission that, since January, has stopped providing monthly payments for aquatics athletes. World Aquatics suspended the president of the Mexican federation, Kiril Todorov, and appointed a commission to take charge while new elections were held.

Todorov was suspended for the failure of the Mexican Swimming Federation to comply with the governing body's good governance standards. But Guevara refused to recognise the commission even though the Court of Arbitration for Sport confirmed the change.

Guevara, a runner who won a silver medal in the 400-meter race at the 2004 Athens Olympics, cut the allowance to all aquatics athletes. So they are now trying to find ways to support themselves.

Balleza, who was fourth in synchronised diving on the 10-meter platform at the Tokyo Olympics, chose to join OnlyFans, a site where content creators upload images and videos, some of them explicit.

“It occurred to me to open it because you are always looking for a way to make income. I support my house and my mother, and I have bills to pay, and you can upload whatever you want in there, it's a valid content,” Balleza said in an interview with The Associated Press. “I am happy that the people who are in my page have been very good and respectful, I hope they continue like this.”

Balleza charges a monthly fee of $15 to access his content but offers quarterly packages for $40.50. As of Monday, he had uploaded 136 images, 26 videos, and had more than 14,000 interactions with fans.

With the money he gets from that website, the 28-year-old diver seeks to replace the little more than 30,000 pesos (about $1,708) that he received as a government scholarship.

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