#614 The Money Behind The Olympics with Polina Pompliano

Polina Pompliano is the founder of The Profile, a new age media company that studies the world’s most successful people and companies. She previously was a technology reporter at Fortune and also happens to be my wife. In this conversation, we discuss the economics behind the Olympics, how Olympians make money, the net worth of your favorite competitors, Simone Biles story, and the strategy to making it big financially as an Olympic athlete. ======================= Public Rec is on a mission to make comfort look good. Their fan-favorite Flex Short is the ultimate crossover short you’ll need all summer long. From the beach to the gym, this quick-drying short has you covered. Comfort starts with a better fit. Free shipping. Free returns. Visit www.publicrec.com/pomp and use POMP at checkout for 10% off! ======================= With 10M+ users, Crypto.com is the easiest place to buy, and sell 100+ cryptocurrencies. The Crypto.com Visa Card gives you up to 8% back instantly, and 100% back on Spotify and Netflix. Also, Crypto.com lets you earn up to 8.5% p.a. on BTC, and 14% p.a. on stablecoins. Get $25 when you download the Crypto.com App with code "pomp". Download the App now: https://crypto.onelink.me/J9Lg/pomppodcast2021 ======================= Okcoin is one of the most popular licensed exchanges. Okcoin is the first to bring new cryptos to market, offering some of the lowest fees in the industry, an easy to use app, and Earn feature--you got to check out their brand new, beautifully designed app! And as of today, they also became the first US exchange to list NEAR. It’s easier than ever to sign up, buy and trade crypto in just 2 minutes on Okcoin with credit & debit cards or just link your bank account to the best new crypto assets. So get started, and go to okcoin.com/pomp

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:02Anthony Pompliano?

  What's up everyone, this is Anthony Pompliano. Most of you know me as Pomp. You're listening to the Pomp Podcast, simply the best podcast out there. Now let's kick this thing off. Paulina Pompliano is the founder of The Profile, a new age media company that studies the world's most successful people and companies. She previously was a technology reporter at Fortune and also happens to be my wife. In this conversation, we discuss the economics behind the Olympics, how Olympians make money, the net worth of your favorite competitors, Simone Biles' story, and the strategy to making it big financially as an Olympic athlete. I really enjoyed this conversation with Paulina and my two brothers, Joseph and John. I hope you enjoy it as well. Before we get into this episode, though, I want to quickly

• 0:46Anthony Pompliano?

  talk about our sponsors. First up is Public Rec. Public Rec simply makes the most comfortable clothes in the world. Public Rec's on a mission to make comfort look good, too. Their fan favorite Flex Shorts is the ultimate crossover short you'll need all summer long. From the beach to the gym, this quick drying short has you covered. Comfort starts with a better fit. Free shipping, free returns. Visit publicrec.com/pomp and use code POMP at checkout for 10% off. Publicrec.com/pomp and use code POMP at checkout for 10% off. Next up is Crypto.com. They've got over 10 million users and are the easiest place to buy and sell 100+ cryptocurrencies. The Crypto.com Visa Card gives you up to 8% back instantly

• 1:27Anthony Pompliano?

  and 100% back on Spotify and Netflix. They also let you earn high rates of return on various assets and you can get $25 when you download the Crypto.com app with code POMP. Again, go download the app by clicking on the link in the description and you'll get $25. Crypto.com, click on the link in the description, download the app, you get 25 bucks for free. Last but not least are my friends over at OkCoin. OkCoin's one of the most popular licensed exchanges. OkCoin's the first to bring new cryptos to market, offering some of the lowest fees in the industry, an easy to use app, and an earn feature. You gotta check out their brand new, beautifully designed app. It really is beautiful. And as of today, they also became the first US exchange to list a ton of new assets. It's easier than ever to sign

• 2:10Anthony Pompliano?

  Buy and trade crypto in just two minutes on OKCOIN with credit and debit cards, or just link your bank account to the best new crypto assets. To get started, go to OKCOIN.com/pomp. Again, OKCOIN.com/pomp. Go check it out and let me know what you think. All right, let's get into this episode with Plena. I hope you enjoy this one.

• 2:31Speaker 01

  Anthony Pompliano runs Pomp Investments. All views of him and the guests on his podcast are solely their opinions and do not reflect the opinions of Pomp Investments. You should not treat any opinion expressed by Pomp or his guests as a specific inducement to make a particular investment or follow a particular strategy, but only as an expression of his personal opinion. This podcast is for informational purposes only.

• 2:59Anthony Pompliano?

  Plena, what's up?

• 3:01Speaker 02

  Hi guys, do you like my background?

• 3:03Anthony Pompliano?

  We like the background. For those that don't know, I forget who sent it to me, but that is a piece of art that somebody sent. What is that, sitting on a chair behind you so you could specifically get that in the image?

• 3:15Speaker 02

  Don't worry about it.

• 3:19Anthony Pompliano?

  Polina's going to the moon!

• 3:24Anthony Pompliano?

  All right, Joe, let's start with the Olympics. What the hell is going on with Olympics? What are the economics and numbers behind this?

• 3:28Speaker 03

  All right, so Olympics are in Tokyo this year. They were postponed due to COVID last year. They're happening this year. Cases are at an all-time high in Tokyo still though, so no fans will be allowed. They just changed that there was going to be like a 20 to 25% allowance and now it's down to zero. There's 11,000 athletes competing in 41 different sports and 339 events. So massive competition, obviously. And from an economic standpoint, they're going to lose a ton of money. So Olympic Games are super, super, super expensive to put on. They estimate that they've spent about $20 billion on costs so far, you know, setting up the structures, everything that goes along with it. And without fans, the revenue was supposed to be around $7 billion with a smaller subset of fans, and now it's going to be even

• 4:13Speaker 03

  less when you take out that 20% of fans that were going to be allowed. So they're looking at upwards of $13 to $15 billion in losses from the game. There's obviously going to be some kind of economic activity that comes from it. Some of the venues are going to continue to be used after the games and some won't. But yeah, they're looking at 10 to 15 billion dollars of losses. The, the thing that interests me though, and the one we were talking about previously was the gold, silver and bronze medals and the taxation on them that occurs, especially here within the US. So for the people that don't know, years ago at the 2016 games, athletes were paid $25,000 for a gold medal, $15,000 for a silver medal and $10,000 for winning a bronze medal. Those figures have changed a little bit. It's now 37, 22 and 15. So the Olympic committee is accounting for inflation.

• 4:58Speaker 03

  But the, the interesting part was that for years and years and years, US Olympians that won medals were taxed on those medals when they came back, not specifically the medal, but the income that was generated from winning those medals. So the example that I saw earlier was Michael Phelps. In 2016, Michael Phelps won, I think it was five gold medals and a silver medal. And, uh, you know, he made a hundred and $40,000 of income off of those medals for winning them. And he was taxed $55,000 when he got back to the US on those medals.

• 5:27Anthony Pompliano?

  So about 40%.

• 5:28Speaker 03

  Yeah. What do we think about that?

• 5:32Speaker 03

  So just real quick, I'll clear up one thing, which is they've now changed the rule a little bit. So President Obama in 2017 or 2018, signed a bill into law that prohibited the IRS from collecting taxes on those winnings, uh, if you make less than a million dollars. So if you make over a million dollars, you still get taxed. Phelps would have been taxed if he makes over a million dollars. But anyone who makes under that is not taxed on their, their winnings from those medals.

• 5:55Anthony Pompliano?

  So basically if you're rich, you gotta pay the government taxes if you're sent to go play a sport and represent your country. But if you're not rich, they give you a break and they say you don't have to pay taxes.

• 6:05Speaker 03

  Yeah. And you're representing your country and you're getting taxed for it.

• 6:08Anthony Pompliano?

  If you win.

• 6:09Speaker 03

  If you win.

• 6:10Anthony Pompliano?

  Losers don't get taxed. Only winners get taxed. Don't forget that.

• 6:13Speaker 02

  But you know what's crazy? It's what's crazy is that, for example, Simone Biles, her first Olympics was in 2016. She was at the top of her sport. She won four gold medals and a bronze. And that, she only made 110K.

• 6:32Anthony Pompliano?

  So she made $110,000 when she won five medals total. And because she hadn't yet made a million bucks, she probably didn't pay taxes on it?

• 6:42Speaker 02

  Probably not, but still, can you imagine like that? That is all you make at the top of your sport.

• 6:48Speaker 03

  Yeah, most of these, they make, you know, all the money off endorsements and stuff.

• 6:51Anthony Pompliano?

  Cause can I be a devil's advocate for a second?

• 6:54Speaker 03

  What?

• 6:55Anthony Pompliano?

  Who watches gymnastics or goes to gymnastics matches outside of the Olympics? During the Olympics, for sure, people watch, it's amazing. I love gymnastics, I love track, I love the swimming, like I'm all in on the Olympics, big Olympics guy. But outside of the Olympics, I don't watch track. I don't watch gymnastics, I don't watch swimming or any of that stuff. So it's just, if you don't have the demand, you can't make the money. And then how do you pay anybody other than when the Olympics, when there's revenue, right? It's like college, college sports. They take it from, from the ones that produce money and distribute it to everyone else.

• 7:26Speaker 03

  So they, Forbes did an article, it's an interesting point because yes, it all revolves around kind of what you do outside of the Olympics, really. Because you only get money from the Olympics based on, yeah, you'll get some endorsements if you win and your Phelps and people like that. Uh, but Forbes did an article on the top 10 highest paid Olympians this year. And like six out of 10 or seven out of the 10 are NBA players. Right? So they're obviously paid extremely well. They make 30, 35 million dollars a year here in the U.S. One was Naomi Osaka, who made 60 million dollars last year, 50 million of that came off endorsements. And then, uh, there was a couple of other tennis players, Novak Djokovic is in there.

• 7:59Anthony Pompliano?

  So really.

• 8:00Speaker 03

  And Rory McIlroy.

• 8:01Anthony Pompliano?

  So really the highest paid Olympians have nothing to do with being Olympians. It's actually the highest paid athletes in the world go to the Olympics.

• 8:07Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 8:07Anthony Pompliano?

  Right? Essentially.

• 8:07Speaker 03

  There's, uh, to me, it seems like there's very few, uh, Olympians who earn a, like who are famous because of the Olympics that make a ton of money outside of the Olympics.

• 8:15Anthony Pompliano?

  All right. So point it, tell us, uh, Simone Biles, for anyone who doesn't know, maybe just start with like who she is and what her story is. This is incredible what this woman has been able to do, but, but walk us through who she is.

• 8:27Speaker 02

  Yeah. Simone Biles is the most dominant athlete in the history of the sport of gymnastics. Uh, she's only 24 years old. She already has 25 world championship medals, four never before done moves named after her. So that means that, uh, she has four signature moves. They're named like Biles one, Biles two, because she is the only one. And her support who can do them, one on vault, one on the balance beam and two on the floor exercise. And she's going to be showing those off this Olympics. But she, so she's, she's just like a very interesting person. She comes from

• 9:10Speaker 02

  a background of when she was growing up. She had, I believe, two brothers and one younger sister. And her dad left the family when she was really young and her mom had a drug problem. So her maternal grandparents ended up adopting her and her younger sister. And her brothers got adopted by her grandfather's brother, I believe. So another family member. And Simone grew up, she was in foster care before she got adopted by her grandparents. And then when she, she got into gymnastics because she went on a field trip with like her kindergarten or her like little school when she was really young.

• 9:56Speaker 02

  And she went to this place and she saw gymnasts there. She started imitating their moves. And the coaches noticed how quickly she was able to pick up the moves and encouraged her grandparents to sign up for gymnastics classes. She's been doing that ever since. I mean, if you watch one video of Simone Biles, you know that she defies the laws of physics.

• 10:22Speaker 03

  So what's crazy about this story, and I'm cheating because Plin has done a dossier for the profile, the business that she runs. You can go, you can subscribe at readtheprofile.com. But she did this whole kind of breakdown of Simone Biles. And what struck me was there's a continuous element of what I would consider obstacles to overcome. It's probably a good way to put it. And so in that scenario, I think that one was she was caught up in the Larry Nassar situation. She was one of the kids who was affected by, let's just call it what it is, that scumbag. And then two is she also recently,

• 11:03Speaker 03

  her brother was charged with, is it triple homicide? And while she was

• 11:10Speaker 02

  He was acquitted.

• 11:11Speaker 03

  Yeah, he ended up being acquitted. But at one point, her brother was arrested and charged with murder.

• 11:18Anthony Pompliano?

  And she continued through all of this to perform at such a high level. And so to me, it's just the mental toughness that's needed to do something like this is absolutely insane.

• 11:29Speaker 02

  Yeah, I mean, not only so, first of all, like foster care, that whole situation. Then the Larry Nassar stuff and then her brother. And I think it's just, it's kind of remarkable because like, yes, there are there are athletes, but you have no idea what they're dealing with in their personal lives. Simone Biles has been outspoken about a lot of these issues. I believe she's the only gymnast who continues with the USA gymnastics program after that whole scandal happened. And she actually recently launched a scholarship fund for foster kids and other kids in need, which which helps them with costs associated with earning college degrees.

• 12:13Speaker 02

  She's just like, I think she understands the value of paying it forward because she's seen what that can do for her.

• 12:21Anthony Pompliano?

  What do we think in terms of Simone Biles's net worth? Planet, don't answer because I know you know the answer. What do you guys think her net worth is?

• 12:28Speaker 03

  Probably a few million dollars.

• 12:30Anthony Pompliano?

  John? Sub 10 million. So if you

• 12:33Speaker 03

  Did you just reword my guess?

• 12:35Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah.

• 12:38Anthony Pompliano?

  I did it in a way though, where like it could be anywhere in that range. So John's closer than Joe because it's what, 6 million?

• 12:45Speaker 02

  Six.

• 12:46Anthony Pompliano?

  And six is not a few, just so we're clear. So John, you were right, sub Six is a few. Is it? Yeah. I don't know if that counts as a few. All right, and Planet, do we know where that money comes from? Like in terms of how she actually makes money?

• 13:01Speaker 02

  Yeah, so she actually recently was with Nike for an apparel partnership, but she left recently to go to Athleta, which was a huge win for that company because that's a much smaller like women's performance, like yoga and swimming and running apparel, things like that. They also have Alison Felix that they signed as well, who also left Nike. And she, other than that, she also has endorsements with Hershey's, Uber Eats, Candid Dental Care Logs, Mattress Firm and Beats by Dre. So she's making cash.

• 13:39Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah, what's crazy to me too is she probably outside of the endorsements and the Olympics makes almost nothing, right? And so really the endorsements are dependent on the Olympics. And so if she doesn't perform in the Olympics, then she doesn't get the endorsement money and there's no other money. And so literally what we're about to watch over, what's the Olympics? Two weeks, three weeks, four weeks, something like that. Whatever the Olympics goes for, this is going to determine how much money she makes for the next four years.

• 14:11Speaker 02

  Yeah. Also, I want to note here, in an interview, she said something interesting a few years ago. She said that she, even though she, you know, makes good money now, she's still very frugal because she says, "I have a fear of going broke." So she actually challenges herself to spend no money at all on some days unless she absolutely has to. And she says, "Of course, my gas light comes on, so I have to go get gas, but besides the necessities, as well as the occasional trip to Subway," she really, really likes Subway, "she says, "I never swipe the credit card." So she's like very aware of her financial situation.

• 14:51Anthony Pompliano?

  That's, that's crazy. All right. We're gonna play a little trivia and nobody look. Plan a get your fingers off of the keyboard. No, no Googling. Michael Phelps, what do we think his net worth is?

• 15:07Speaker 03

  20 million.

• 15:08Anthony Pompliano?

  20, 20? Wow, wow, Johnny, did you see?

• 15:11Speaker 03

  Who said it at the same time?

• 15:13Anthony Pompliano?

  All right, fine, I'll go, I'll go, I'll go 25. We can go back to the tape and you definitely saw it after he had fully completed the words. Cheater. Plan, what do you think?

• 15:23Speaker 02

  17?

• 15:24Anthony Pompliano?

  Wow, 17, 20, 25, 80 million. Joe, stop Googling. Joe's, Joe's cheating right now.

• 15:29Speaker 03

  I'm making sure you're not lying.

• 15:30Anthony Pompliano?

  This is literally cheating right now.

• 15:32Speaker 03

  I already said my answer.

• 15:33Anthony Pompliano?

  80 million dollars. How much do we think he makes every year?

• 15:37Speaker 03

  20 million.

• 15:42Anthony Pompliano?

  Polina?

• 15:43Speaker 02

  Seventeen million.

• 15:45Anthony Pompliano?

  Seventeen, Joe?

• 15:47Speaker 03

  Like currently, right now?

• 15:49Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah, this is reported in 2021. Michael Phelps has an $80 million net worth. What do you think he makes every year?

• 15:57Speaker 03

  Ten?

• 15:58Anthony Pompliano?

  Ooh, Joe's actually pretty close. 9.3 million, they claim, uh, each year. Pretty crazy, but, but most of the money now is from book and film deals, not endorsements anymore.

• 16:09Speaker 02

  Oh, oh, oh, wait. Can I, do I raise my hand on this show?

• 16:13Anthony Pompliano?

  No, you just interrupted. You're the boss. Go ahead.

• 16:14Speaker 02

  Oh, okay, okay, great. I love interrupting. So, um, uh, there's a great documentary. There's a great documentary on HBO, um, that I recently watched called The Weight of Gold. And I think it's produced by Michael Phelps. He's the main star in it, but there's also other Olympians. And they basically talk about the, it's a mix of the mental health challenges plus the financial challenges that Olympians face after performing in the Olympics. Truly good.

• 16:43Anthony Pompliano?

  How much do we think Ryan Lochte's net worth is?

• 16:47Speaker 03

  He's got nothing.

• 16:51Speaker 03

  He was on the, what's that show A-Rod did on TV or whatever?

• 16:54Anthony Pompliano?

  Damn, Joe, you're coming.

• 16:57Speaker 03

  This is like, am I right or wrong?

• 17:01Speaker 03

  I ain't got anything against him, but.

• 17:03Anthony Pompliano?

  I need numbers. I need numbers. Let's go. What numbers, Polina? You go first. What number you think Ryan Lochte's got?

• 17:08Speaker 02

  250K.

• 17:09Anthony Pompliano?

  Oh, wow. Okay. Joe, get your fingers off the keyboard. He's literally.

• 17:14Speaker 03

  My guess is, my guess is, my guess is 2 million.

• 17:18Anthony Pompliano?

  No, wait, wait.

• 17:18Speaker 03

  Cause I'm not get, I thought we were done guessing.

• 17:20Anthony Pompliano?

  Joe, what does he have typed into Google?

• 17:22Speaker 01

  Ryan Lochte.

• 17:24Anthony Pompliano?

  Caught me act cheating. What do you say? What do you guys think?

• 17:27Speaker 03

  Well, this thing's wrong.

• 17:29Anthony Pompliano?

  Well, he says he's.

• 17:29Speaker 03

  You're a better read a wrong number.

• 17:30Anthony Pompliano?

  They say he's worth $8 million.

• 17:32Speaker 03

  No shot.

• 17:32Anthony Pompliano?

  No shot?

• 17:33Speaker 03

  He's literally, I'll show interview, next episode, I'm showing interviews where he says he's, he's got nothing. He literally says it. He admits it all the time.

• 17:40Anthony Pompliano?

  There's plenty of people who got paper net worth and got no, like, cash. And by the way, you ever heard, don't let anyone know you're actually rich? Come on, just because he says it doesn't mean. That's true. All right, last one.

• 17:50Speaker 03

  All right, one says six, one says two, one says eight.

• 17:53Anthony Pompliano?

  So he's a millionaire, multimillionaire.

• 17:54Speaker 03

  Sub ten.

• 17:55Anthony Pompliano?

  Maybe. Yeah, sub ten, exactly. There you go. All right, Missy Franklin, who is probably the most dominant female swimmer. What do we think her net worth is estimated?

• 18:03Speaker 02

  Missy, Missy.

• 18:04Anthony Pompliano?

  Missy Franklin. What else? Missy Elliott? Missy Elliott's a rapper, right?

• 18:07Speaker 03

  Missy Elliott?

• 18:08Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, Missy Elliott.

• 18:09Speaker 02

  No, Missy Franklin.

• 18:10Speaker 03

  You're done for the day.

• 18:12Anthony Pompliano?

  I'm a product of the 2000s bangers, all right? Missy Elliott was fired, and if you don't agree, you're an idiot. Missy Franklin is the competitive swimmer. What is her net worth? What do we think?

• 18:23Speaker 02

  Wait, hold on, hold on. Correction, Katie Ledecky is...

• 18:26Anthony Pompliano?

  Oh, Katie Ledecky is the better one? All right, sorry, Missy. I didn't mean to put some blast like that.

• 18:32Speaker 02

  Katie Ledecky. I mean, Missy's great.

• 18:34Anthony Pompliano?

  They basically have the same one. What do you think Katie Ledecky's... They say she's 24 years old. What do you think her net worth is?

• 18:39Speaker 03

  1.7 million.

• 18:41Anthony Pompliano?

  Wrong.

• 18:43Anthony Pompliano?

  I mean, that was a pretty specific guess. That looked like you Googled.

• 18:45Speaker 03

  Three or four.

• 18:47Anthony Pompliano?

  What do you think, Polina?

• 18:49Speaker 02

  Three.

• 18:50Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah, I don't want to say Joe was right, but he is right. Four.

• 18:53Speaker 02

  Ah.

• 18:54Speaker 03

  What's up? I'm just saying, people in the comments are saying I was right about Lochte, too, but we'll leave that for another day.

• 19:01Anthony Pompliano?

  Isn't Lochte... Can we... Wait, let's just talk about this real quick. Isn't Ryan Lochte the one who said he got robbed at a gas station?

• 19:06Speaker 03

  Yeah, I thought you were going to go.

• 19:08Anthony Pompliano?

  Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. Polina, I know Polina knows the story. Polina, what happened?

• 19:14Speaker 02

  Okay, so it was something like...

• 19:16Anthony Pompliano?

  Oh, she got way too excited.

• 19:17Speaker 02

  Wait, wait, wait. But I think, so it was in Rio, right? And a reporter was sitting next to his mom on a bus. And I don't think she knew it was a reporter, and she's like, oh, it's terrible what's going on here. They are just robbing these young men. And the reporter's like, wait, what? And she was saying like, yeah, and my son got robbed at a gas station? And they're like, aren't you Ryan Lochte's mom? And then that's how the story came out. I think Ryan lied to his mom. And then the mom accidentally told a reporter.

• 19:47Anthony Pompliano?

  All right, so I looked it up. It's called Lochte Gate. Lockdy Gate, we're bringing you all of the conspiracy. No, just kidding. It's not conspiracy theory. This is, this is now confirmed. It says Lockdy Gate, which is playing out exactly what you said, but there's more juicy details. There's the colloquial name of the scandal involving United States swim team members, Ryan Lockdy and three other guys that never heard it before from 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Initial news stories reported that Lockdy and three other swimmers had been robbed at gunpoint after a night out in Rio. But later details emerged that the armed robbers, armed robbers that were posing as police is what their description was, were actually just the security guards at a gas station where the swimmers had

• 20:32Anthony Pompliano?

  urinated outside the bathroom and Lockdy allegedly vandalized a framed poster and ended with the swimmers providing money to the guards. Some of the swimmers were detained in Brazil as witnesses. Ultimately, the athletes each released statements and one swimmer paid a fine of approximately $10,800 to Brazilian charity in order to get his passport back. Damn, Brazil is super corrupt. Literally, you want your passport back, make a donation. And then Lockdy apologized for not being more candid about the dispute and subsequently lost four major sponsorships. All right, what plana?

• 21:02Speaker 02

  I was gonna say, the reason I remember this is, um, I was working at Fortune then and one of the guys who got caught up in that, the one you said you've never heard of, uh, he went to UGA, he went to the University of Georgia, and I remember that being a big deal there. Um, and I think like his girlfriend was like, let him go, like he needs to come back to the United States. And, um, uh, wait, and there was something, oh, yeah. And Michael Phelps like almost went with them to party afterwards, but he was like, I'm going home. I have a child. So those were all the guys who went partying.

• 21:32Anthony Pompliano?

  So I don't want to keep harping on Lockdy here. I'm sure he's a great guy, whatever, but I looked up the numbers here just to clarify how right I was on this. What, what, what do you got against this guy?

• 21:42Speaker 03

  I don't got anything against him. This is all public information. He wrote, he told this to CNBC. He says that after that incident, he went from making a million dollars a year in endorsements to less than $75,000 from one endorsement. He said that he moved out of a 42,000 square foot home and into an 1,800 square foot apartment. And he had about $20,000 to his name in savings.

• 22:02Anthony Pompliano?

  Yo, back up for a second. He had a 42,000 square foot home?

• 22:06Speaker 03

  No, 4,200.

• 22:09Anthony Pompliano?

  Forty-two hundred square foot home to an eighteen hundred square foot apartment.

• 22:17Speaker 03

  Twenty thousand dollars in savings and he says, he says he hasn't looked at his bank account in two years.

• 22:21Anthony Pompliano?

  Well, maybe that's why he only has twenty thousand dollars. Looking at his bank account.

• 22:25Speaker 03

  Well, that's a lot less than eight million.

• 22:27Anthony Pompliano?

  Do we think that he should still be punished for this? I feel like it's over, like, like.

• 22:32Speaker 01

  He shouldn't be dragged through the mud continuously.

• 22:35Anthony Pompliano?

  Second chances?

• 22:36Speaker 03

  Yeah, but who, like, what endorsement value does he have now that he's not competing in there?

• 22:40Anthony Pompliano?

  I'm sure that there's a brand somewhere that'd be willing to stroke him a check to do something crazy. Did he, wasn't Planet, didn't he walk around with a grill in his mouth?

• 22:49Speaker 02

  I don't know, he's done a lot of things.

• 22:51Speaker 03

  He's got like a thousand pairs of shoes, so maybe he should, uh...

• 22:55Anthony Pompliano?

  Hold on, I'm pretty sure. Oh, no, no, yeah, yeah, yeah, he had it, yeah. Earlier on Saturday, this is, uh, from LarryBrownSports.com. They said, this is written in 2012. Earlier on Saturday, we noted that Lochte was sporting a custom-made diamond grill in his mouth on the medal stand. I, I knew I remembered this. He went up to receive the gold medal and he had a custom grill made of diamonds. What are you two giggling about?

• 23:27Speaker 03

  We'll tell you later.

• 23:30Anthony Pompliano?

  Is this not something we want to bring up?

• 23:32Speaker 03

  No.

• 23:33Anthony Pompliano?

  I kind of feel like maybe we should bring it up.

• 23:35Speaker 03

  No.

• 23:37Anthony Pompliano?

  John's face is red as hell right now.

• 23:40Speaker 03

  Cause he's saving you.

• 23:42Anthony Pompliano?

  He's saving me? Alright, that's fine.

• 23:45Anthony Pompliano?

  Is there anybody else that we want to quickly look up their net worth before we move on?

• 23:48Speaker 03

  No.

• 23:49Anthony Pompliano?

  Alright, Planet, is there anybody else? What, what is the, uh, the marathon runner, the, the long-distance runner that you really like? Is he competing in the Olympics?

• 23:58Speaker 02

  Yeah, Elliot Kipchoge.

• 23:59Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah, Kipchoge, this dude's a gangster, he makes millions of dollars, doesn't he live in his village in Africa still? Yeah, this is, this is, this is one of the greatest stories of all time. What, he's a marathon runner?

• 24:11Speaker 02

  Yes. He, he is the, he is the man who broke the two-hour barrier for the marathon.

• 24:17Anthony Pompliano?

  Okay, and...

• 24:20Anthony Pompliano?

  He broke the marathon under two hours, first person to do it.

• 24:25Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 24:26Anthony Pompliano?

  Do we know how much his net worth is?

• 24:28Speaker 02

  I don't.

• 24:29Anthony Pompliano?

  Joe, look it up right now and you tell us a story about where he comes from and kind of how he still lives.

• 24:35Speaker 03

  Three million.

• 24:36Anthony Pompliano?

  How much?

• 24:36Speaker 03

  Three million.

• 24:37Anthony Pompliano?

  So he's worth, he's a multimillionaire. He ran the fastest marathon of all time, under two hours. And he lives in a village, is it Nairobi?

• 24:49Speaker 02

  Uh, no, it's not. It's a small village in Kenya, in the mountains.

• 24:52Anthony Pompliano?

  In Kenya, which is pretty cool.

• 24:53Speaker 02

  It's called Kaptagat.

• 24:56Anthony Pompliano?

  And he still lives there and provides all, and basically just helps out all of the people he grew up with.

• 25:01Speaker 02

  Yeah. And he says, so, uh, he says, I don't have extra money to actually make my mind go haywire. I'm a human being and I say a human being, money stays away. I'm not working with money. Money is in the bank. I want to live a simple life. He's very like, they call him like, kind of like the philosopher king of, uh, running. He's, he lives a very disciplined life. He doesn't drink. He doesn't party. He's just like very disciplined.

• 25:26Speaker 03

  He's the opposite of Usain Bolt.

• 25:28Anthony Pompliano?

  Usain?

• 25:29Speaker 03

  Who's Usain Bolt?

• 25:30Anthony Pompliano?

  Oh, Usain.

• 25:31Speaker 03

  Sorry, Usain Bolt.

• 25:32Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah, I got you. Uh, when you think of, uh, Usain Bolt, what is he doing?

• 25:37Speaker 03

  He's partying.

• 25:39Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah, but Chaco, uh, how you say it?

• 25:42Speaker 02

  Kipchoge?

• 25:42Anthony Pompliano?

  Kipchoge? He's partying probably too, but it's just where he chooses to live. Doesn't Usain Bolt still live in Jamaica?

• 25:49Speaker 03

  I don't know.

• 25:50Anthony Pompliano?

  I'm pretty sure he does. The whole point of this is just, if you're really dominant.

• 25:54Speaker 03

  Usain Bolt is chilling. He's worth $90 million.

• 25:57Anthony Pompliano?

  Okay, where's he live?

• 25:58Speaker 03

  More than Phelps.

• 25:58Anthony Pompliano?

  Where does he live?

• 25:59Speaker 03

  I think Jamaica.

• 26:00Anthony Pompliano?

  Okay, so he's doing the same thing. He still lives in his hometown. Like I said, just chill. Just because your net worth is high doesn't mean you gotta go do crazy stuff. But what I do think is very, uh, interesting about the Olympics is it's clear by all accounts. You basically have three paths to making money. One, you can make money by actually winning, uh, a medal. It's, you know, whatever, 20 to $40,000 per medal. Two is if you're dominant, you get a lot more endorsement deals and therefore that leads to money. And then three is it appears like if you have a long career at the Olympics and can really build a brand for yourself, there's then TV and book deals and movie deals afterwards. But those are essentially the three paths to making money for these athletes, which shows,

• 26:43Anthony Pompliano?

  similar to many other sports, what you can earn actually on the field, the court, the track, whatever, or in the pool is miniscule compared to what you have to make outside. And so really, at the end of the day, these are attention kind of operations, right? If you can get attention, if you can get the brand, then you can monetize it. If not, then you're basically stuck with just the prize money.

• 27:07Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 27:08Anthony Pompliano?

  What do you think, John?

• 27:10Speaker 01

  Yeah, I think athletes more and more have realized that they need to build a brand, and that goes along with more money, more exposure, everything like that. But you just, you just see athletes know, and no matter what sport you're in, you can't play forever.

• 27:23Speaker 03

  Brent, in the comments, said to look up Usain Bolt's children's names.

• 27:27Anthony Pompliano?

  What is it, Lightning?

• 27:29Speaker 03

  He's got three of them, yeah. Olympia, Lightning Bolt, St. Leo Bolt, and Thunder Bolt.

• 27:36Speaker 02

  Thunder Bolt!

• 27:37Anthony Pompliano?

  That's not real. That's really the kids' names?

• 27:41Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 27:41Anthony Pompliano?

  Yo Brent, I appreciate you. That was great. Alright, people are saying Bolt, oh no, this is Brent, he said Bolt ain't chillin', he's a party animal. And then other people said, Usain definitely parties. What do we, is there something that we know about him that, like, why do people say he parties? Is that like a known thing?

• 27:58Speaker 01

  He loves to party.

• 27:58Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 27:59Anthony Pompliano?

  Oh, really?

• 27:59Speaker 03

  Yeah. I saw a documentary on him a while ago. Yeah, he was riding ATVs, he was going out every night, he was doing...

• 28:04Anthony Pompliano?

  Can I tell you who is similar to Usain Bolt, actually?

• 28:08Speaker 03

  Who?

• 28:09Anthony Pompliano?

  Giannis and Usain strike me as the exact same type of person, because they come from somewhere else in the United States, they come, they rise in athletic stardom, right? And they end up building kind of this brand, and their brand is all around. They're like happy-go-lucky, they're always joking around, having a good time, and they're just like happy to be there, right? They genuinely enjoy what they do, and they don't take it for granted that they've been able to... To rise to this level of success. And so just like with Yanis, obviously just winning the NBA finals. And then you say it like, to me, like, that's what makes this fun is because you're like watching them. If you're an American, you're watching your fellow citizens go and try to accomplish their life dream. Right? Like, it's just so cool.

• 28:50Speaker 03

  The, uh, the one story about Usain that's great is you heard about what happened at the Beijing Olympics?

• 28:55Anthony Pompliano?

  Nah.

• 28:56Speaker 03

  He doesn't like, no, it's not anything bad. He doesn't like the food at the Olympics, he claims. He said this food's terrible. So he ate chicken nuggets from McDonald's every single day. Chicken nuggets. And he, he says he ate a hundred a day for 10 days straight. So a thousand chicken nuggets over 10 days. And he set three world records in a hundred meter, 200 meter and 400 meter.

• 29:15Anthony Pompliano?

  That can't be true.

• 29:16Speaker 03

  That's what he says.

• 29:17Speaker 02

  That's the best ad for McDonald's.

• 29:19Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah, they pay that man.

• 29:21Speaker 03

  There's photos of him eating the nuggets like on the track. Like he was eating nuggets all week.

• 29:28Anthony Pompliano?

  What?

• 29:29Speaker 01

  Yeah, I'm gonna see if I can find one.

• 29:30Anthony Pompliano?

  That, that is crazy that Usain Bolt claims he ate a thousand nuggets in a, in a 10 day period and he still set three world records?

• 29:38Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 29:39Anthony Pompliano?

  You think he woke up and he's just like, I gotta go get some chicken nuggets. Let me get some barbecue sauce? Like, like he basically was just eating it for three meals a day?

• 29:46Speaker 01

  I don't mind chicken nuggets from McDonald's either, but for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

• 29:50Anthony Pompliano?

  If you eat a hundred a day, that's 30 something nuggets a sitting.

• 29:57Anthony Pompliano?

  Like what?

• 29:57Speaker 02

  They're not that big. Like, come on.

• 30:00Speaker 01

  I mean, Yanis just ate 50 nuggets. He, he just ordered a 50 piece.

• 30:03Anthony Pompliano?

  Well, but did you see him eat it?

• 30:05Speaker 01

  No.

• 30:05Anthony Pompliano?

  And he didn't do it twice in that day and he didn't do it for 10 days either. Like he did it, he did it one time.

• 30:10Speaker 01

  He did it after he won too.

• 30:12Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah, he's not Joey Chestnut out here, right? Like, yeah, and he had already won. Exactly. Come on now, they, don't be pitching me this stuff. People are saying, uh, uh, he's a super athlete. Yeah, look, of course he's a good athlete. Of course the nuggets are good. Uh, and if you're fast, you're fast. I get it. I get all that stuff. And a 20 piece, no problem. I hear you. All of us could eat a 20 piece. I don't think, I'm gonna go on a limb. I don't think that if we ordered a hundred nuggets and we put them here, that we could eat a hundred nuggets in one sitting.

• 30:41Speaker 03

  He didn't do them, he did it throughout the day.

• 30:43Anthony Pompliano?

  I understand.

• 30:43Speaker 03

  He ate, he ate five 20 pieces throughout the day.

• 30:46Anthony Pompliano?

  Okay, so here's what we're gonna do is next week, we're gonna order McDonald's.

• 30:49Speaker 03

  If you sit me down here for an hour, I could eat 20 nuggets while we're doing the show.

• 30:53Anthony Pompliano?

  Okay, and then when you get to eat again? This is the picture from the track.

• 30:59Speaker 01

  Yo, get out of here.

• 31:02Anthony Pompliano?

  He's just scarfing down McDonald's nuggets.

• 31:05Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 31:06Speaker 03

  Legend.

• 31:07Anthony Pompliano?

  That, that is unbelievable. All right. If we order 50 nuggets.

• 31:12Speaker 03

  Where did?

• 31:13Anthony Pompliano?

  Hold on.

• 31:14Speaker 03

  How do I get to 50? I said 20.

• 31:15Anthony Pompliano?

  No, no, no, we gotta do 33. So we gotta order 100 nuggets, basically. We're gonna order 100 nuggets. We're gonna bring them in here and one day next week, we're gonna each try to eat 33 nuggets while we sit here in one sitting. Cause he has to do that three times, three meals a day, 33 each, and then he'd get 100.

• 31:31Speaker 03

  I think he's eating more than three times a day, but that's okay.

• 31:34Anthony Pompliano?

  Okay. So you think he eats 20?

• 31:35Speaker 03

  I think he eats probably four to five times. Yeah. 20, 25.

• 31:39Anthony Pompliano?

  I don't think you could eat 100 nuggets throughout the day.

• 31:42Speaker 03

  I wouldn't want to.

• 31:43Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah, like.

• 31:45Speaker 03

  But he's like, the food sucks.

• 31:47Speaker 01

  And then run 200 meters.

• 31:48Anthony Pompliano?

  Well, well, that brings up the question then of how bad does the food have to suck for you to think that the McDonald's chicken nuggets for 10 days in a row is better?

• 31:55Speaker 03

  Someone said in the comments, I look like I could eat 50 nuggets by myself.

• 32:02Anthony Pompliano?

  What's wrong with you guys, man? Hey, man, listen, the crowd's always right. Last thing I want to talk about before we end this is, uh, Paulina, ca- can you hear me?

• 32:13Speaker 02

  Yeah, sorry. I was about to sneeze. What's up?

• 32:15Anthony Pompliano?

  I, I, I don't want you to be associated with this, so stay right there. Don't comment if you don't have to. Can we talk about the beds at the Olympics? What's going on with this? Do you see the guy who had the whole thread? He was making fun of the cardboard beds? And he was like saying, you know, oh damn, any athlete that pees in the bed, they're done. And he was saying, and he was like, you know, saying all these jokes and stuff.

• 32:36Speaker 01

  Well, what was the setup cost for the Olympics? He said 20 billion?

• 32:39Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah, roughly 15 to 20.

• 32:41Anthony Pompliano?

  Damn, did you guys just see Paulina yawning? She literally didn't even think they were cool. She was, she was just yawning and stuff. All right. Uh, the, Paulina, do you know anything about the beds?

• 32:50Speaker 02

  Um, yes, I saw that our friends Alex and Mateo, um, were trying to say like, this is atrocious. We should send them like eight sleep beds. These are elite athletes.

• 33:01Anthony Pompliano?

  So start from the top of the beds right now, uh, are cardboard beds. I don't know how they created cardboard beds, but they have cardboard beds. And it's allegedly meant to prevent the Olympic athletes from having sex with each other.

• 33:15Speaker 03

  That's not what it's meant for.

• 33:19Speaker 03

  That's not what it's meant for. They said they're gonna It's because they're using like renewable something. It's

• 33:24Anthony Pompliano?

  Google it.

• 33:25Speaker 03

  I know that's what people are saying.

• 33:27Anthony Pompliano?

  Okay.

• 33:28Speaker 03

  You think that the Olympic committee was like, yeah, we're gonna stop people from having sex with cardboard beds?

• 33:31Anthony Pompliano?

  Do you know that one of the

• 33:32Speaker 03

  The guy was jumping up and down on the bed.

• 33:33Anthony Pompliano?

  Do you know? Do you know? Do you know that one of the biggest problems in Olympic Village is historically the athletes all having sex with each other?

• 33:40Speaker 03

  Yeah, it's not a problem. They hand out condoms on the show.

• 33:43Anthony Pompliano?

  That's why it's a problem. They have to address it.

• 33:45Speaker 03

  It's not a problem. I mean, they know what's happening. Yeah.

• 33:48Anthony Pompliano?

  It's why they have to They literally have to hand out condoms and stuff because they know that it's happening and they have to address it. So same thing here. They're trying to curb in proprieties.

• 33:57Speaker 03

  These meds were the, but these cardboard beds, this is a fact check, by the way, fact check. The, uh, these cardboard beds were made to be more sustainable, not to discourage intimacy among athletes known to fill their Olympic free time with such endeavors.

• 34:10Anthony Pompliano?

  Who? Known to fulfill their free time? Just so we're clear, that was a known

• 34:14Speaker 03

  He just ignored the entire first part of that.

• 34:17Speaker 03

  Where did you get the fact check? It's a USA Today article. All right, you can find your own source, but that's my research.

• 34:23Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah, the internet is always right. Don't worry. All right, Paulina.

• 34:28Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 34:30Anthony Pompliano?

  Sorry, we had to talk about the beds. I feel like we'd be doing the audience disservice if we didn't talk about the cardboard beds. Can you tell us about the profile before we let you go so that we can get people to go over there and subscribe? I'm gonna put the link in the description right now, but will you tell us?

• 34:45Speaker 02

  The profile is my newsletter that I write every week. It comes out on Sunday and the premium edition comes out on Wednesday where I do a deep dive of an individual person. The last one I did was Simone Biles. Next week might be Elliot, um, or this week. What are we today? Sunday, Friday?

• 35:03Speaker 03

  Friday.

• 35:03Speaker 02

  Tuesday? Friday.

• 35:06Speaker 02

  On Wednesday, you can expect a new one. So sign up at readtheprofile.com.

• 35:11Anthony Pompliano?

  Awesome. I have been the second subscriber to the profile since day one. Somebody accidentally

• 35:19Speaker 02

  Like a premium.

• 35:20Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah, somebody accidentally beat me to pay for the profile.

• 35:25Speaker 03

  It was not you.

• 35:27Anthony Pompliano?

  Do you see how intellectually dishonest Joe is? He's just trying to take

• 35:31Speaker 03

  Hey, don't be placing that label on me.

• 35:32Anthony Pompliano?

  Well, you're just trying to take credit for everybody else. It's okay. Uh, do you pay?

• 35:37Speaker 03

  Yeah, no.

• 35:38Anthony Pompliano?

  I

• 35:41Anthony Pompliano?

  Wow.

• 35:42Speaker 01

  He lied and then immediately he's like, wait, no.

• 35:44Anthony Pompliano?

  Wait a minute.

• 35:45Speaker 01

  They got.

• 35:46Speaker 02

  Family, family and friends discount.

• 35:48Anthony Pompliano?

  I didn't get that.

• 35:50Speaker 02

  Yeah, cuz you wanted, you wanted to beat the person and then ended up in second place.

• 35:54Speaker 01

  And then put on auto pay, so it just renewed.

• 35:56Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah, somehow. It's the best money I spend. I learn every single Sunday.

• 36:00Speaker 01

  The content is amazing.

• 36:02Anthony Pompliano?

  Yeah, actually, John, what do you think? John, John does the most reading out of all of us. What do you think about the content?

• 36:06Speaker 01

  I love the content.

• 36:07Anthony Pompliano?

  We can kill her feed so she can't hear anything you said, but just tell us.

• 36:10Speaker 01

  The content's great. It breaks down different individuals across many different industries. It's a, it's an amazing read. It talks about their techniques, different stories. Twice a week, it's, it's awesome.

• 36:22Speaker 02

  John's the best, man.

• 36:24Anthony Pompliano?

  People are saying that they absolutely love the profile of the profile. Go to readtheprofile.com, sign up today. I'm gonna leave you guys with a couple of thoughts. The first is that people are saying, laughing my ass off. Let Joe be great, Anthony. Who said that? Zachary, I like you, Zachary. Yeah, I think you were talking about somebody else in the comments, not you, though.

• 36:42Speaker 01

  No.

• 36:43Anthony Pompliano?

  I'm kidding, I'm kidding, I'm kidding. Alright, Polina, thank you so much for doing this. Polina's gonna be coming on. We're, we're trying to figure out she's gonna come on once a week. Or what the periodic thing is, but she's gonna come on on a periodic basis. She's gonna break down one individual that she studies for the profile. We're going to say, you know, what their story is, what they're doing now, what their finances are, what their net worth is, how they build a living, and kind of what we can learn from them. So it'll be awesome. So go to readtheprofile.com. Make sure that you're signed up for that.