(Reuters) -British canoeist Kurts Adams Rozentals has been handed a two-year suspension and kicked out of the Olympic programme after posting an explicit video on Instagram and misleading the press about the reasons for his initial ban, Paddle UK announced.
The canoe slalom athlete, who was part of Paddle UK’s World Class Programme for Olympic hopefuls, was initially suspended in April by the governing body and has now been de-selected from the elite programme entirely.
Rozentals, a 23-year-old canoe slalom athlete, had said he began using OnlyFans — a subscription-based service that allows users to monetise content, some of it adult in nature — to post ‘spicy’ material to fund his Olympic dream.
However, a disciplinary panel found that he admitted posting an explicit video on Instagram which was “subsequently removed given its explicit nature”.
“The athlete had intentionally misinformed the press that his suspension was related to his OnlyFans social media account,” Paddle UK said in a statement.
The governing body said his actions amounted to gross misconduct and brought Paddle UK’s name into “serious disrepute”.
‘VERY EXTREME’ PUNISHMENT
Although Paddle UK did not name the athlete, Rozentals confirmed the “very extreme” punishment with BBC Sport and said the ban would never have happened if athletes were funded properly.
Under Paddle UK’s World Class Programme, Rozentals received 16,000 pounds ($21,473.60) in funding for his training but he said it did not allow him to be a full-time athlete.
“While I understand the video could be described as crazy, it was not illegal and certainly shouldn’t be the reason for banning an athlete,” he said.
“Looking back now, I probably wouldn’t post something like that. But I remember the state of mind I was in when I did film it and post it.
“It was the first time in my life I saw real progress in my financial situation. It was the first time I was able to fund the training myself.”
($1 = 0.7451 pounds)
(Reporting by Rohith Nair in Bengaluru;Editing by Christian Radnedge)
