British canoeist Kurts Adams Rozentals has been handed a two-year ban and kicked out of the Olympic program after posting an explicit video on Instagram and misleading the press about the reasons for his initial ban, Paddle UK announced.
The canoe slalo athlete, who was part of Paddle UK’s world-class program for Olympic hopefuls, was initially suspended by the governing body in April and has now been deselected.
Rozentals had said he started using OnlyFans to post “racy” material to fund his Olympic dream. However, a disciplinary panel ruled that he admitted to posting an explicit video on Instagram that was “subsequently removed due to its explicit nature.”
“The athlete deliberately misinformed the press that his suspension was related to his OnlyFans social media account,” Paddle UK said. The governing body said his actions amounted to gross misconduct and brought his name into “severe disrepute”.
Although Paddle UK did not name the athlete, Rozentals confirmed the “very extreme” punishment with BBC Sport and said the ban would not have happened if athletes had been properly funded.
Rozentals received £16,000 in funding for his training, but he said this prevented him from being a full-time athlete. “While I understand that the video could be described as insane, it was not illegal and certainly should not be the reason to ban an athlete,” he said. “Looking back on it now, I probably wouldn’t post something like that. But I remember the state of mind I was in when I filmed and posted it. It was the first time in my life that I saw real progress in my financial situation. It was the first time I was able to finance the training myself.”
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