The brothel-owning Olympian

Logan Campbell sold sex to get to the London Olympics, said Les Carpenter in Yahoo.com. In 2008, the New Zealand tae kwon do champion returned home from the Beijing Olympics medal-less, but with a $120,000 bill for his travel, equipment, and training costs. His parents helped settle the tab, but Campbell realized that he’d need a new source of revenue if he was going to reach the London Games. So he opened a brothel with an accountant friend. “It’s a legal business in New Zealand,” says the 26-year-old. “It’s completely different from other countries in the world. No one was forced into the industry, and they’re not doing it because they are in poverty, because we have a really good welfare system.” It might have been legal, but Campbell’s occupation raised a few eyebrows among the watchdogs of amateur athletics. The New Zealand Olympic Committee threatened to sue him for linking the Games with prostitution. Then something remarkable happened. As local news organizations reported on his unusual business venture, companies started coming forward with hundreds of thousands of dollars in sponsorship. “We never had funding in the history of tae kwon do, and all of a sudden it was like, bam!” Campbell sold his stake in the brothel in 2011. But even if he fell on hard times again, he wouldn’t go back to pimping. “It’s too much hassle.”

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