Shannon Sharpe And OchoCinco Offer $50K To Select Olympians

August 1, 2024

“Sometimes you need a little motivation, right?”

On a recent episode of Shannon Sharpe and Chad “OchoCinco” Johnson‘s “Nightcap’ podcast, after finding out the cash amount that gold medal winners from the United States take home, they offered to up the stakes and pay some Olympian athletes $50,000 each for bringing the gold home.

The two former NFL players were disappointed to learn that after years of training and giving their all to the sport they participate in, if American athletes win a gold medal at the Olympics, they are only awarded $37,000. Sharpe comments that each gold medal winner should take home at least $200,000. So, he offered to pay four particular athletes $25,000, with OchoCinco contributing an additional $25,000 for a total of $50,000, to those who stand on the podium to receive a gold medal.

Those four Olympians were track-and-field competitors: Noah Lyles, Sha’Carri Richardson, Rai Benjamin, and Sydney McLaughlin Levrone.

“Noah Lyles, if you win the 100-meter gold, me and Ocho $25,000 apiece,” Sharpe says in the video clip.”You too, Sha’Carri, you get that 100? Nephew, hey Rai, you win the gold? 25K.”

“Oh, Syd. Oh, the hurdle.”

OchoCinco chimed in and said, “You might as well mail Syd her check now!”

Not only did the pair offer each of those Olympians a $50,000 payout, but they even went as far as offering any American who breaks any world record in any sport an additional $50,000 each.

“I pay $50,000 to any American who breaks a world record,” said Sharpe. “I don’t give a damn what the event is, out of my pocket.”

OchoCinco goes off-camera to grab five stacks ($10,000 bundles) to show in front of the camera.

“Sometimes you need a little motivation, right?”

The former Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver goes on to say that the athletes bust their butts for four years, and they only receive $37,000 for winning the top medal of the games.