A requisite part of Olympics coverage is always the personal (and hopefully juicy!) stories revealed about the athletes. This one recently lost her grandma, and is skiing in her honor. That one had to overcome a nearly career-ending injury, and that dude over there has never been in love!
Their "heart-wrenching" revelations are typically just sad/moving enough to make us care a little more about the athlete’s pending performance, but not serve as shock value.
Enter U.S. speedskater Emily Scott. Turns out that even though she has been training epically long hours for the Olympics, she had to work a part-time job at a surgical supply factory. But hey, plenty of Olympic athletes without lucrative sponsorships have to work in addition to training—big dreams come with a big price, right?
But not only did she have work (and at a surgical supply factory no less)—after several scandals in U.S. Speedskating, her funding dried up and Emily was reduced to filing for food stamps to pay for sustenance. Geez.
But oh no, we’re not done. In addition to grueling training, working part-time, and using food stamps – WAIT FOR IT – her mother and sister are BOTH serving long sentences in prison.
Because they were caught trafficking meth. Wow.
We're not gonna lie; this is not exactly the hyper-involved, super-supportive family structure we typically hear about with Olympians.
Thankfully, Emily seems super disciplined, and has just about the world’s sweetest dad on earth—who lives paycheck to paycheck and raised Emily in the wake of her mom being sent to the slammer when Emily was just 6 years old.
Happily, she's finally been kissed by Lady Luck. USA Today wrote an article about her plight, and hundreds of people have donated money to her cause—more than $48,000 — which should be enough to meet her current expenses and fly her father to Russia to watch her final competitions of the games.
So good luck to you, Emily— we hope you win your races, and despite the fact you don’t look like a princess or sex kitten, we hope you score some sponsorships.
(Image: commons.wikimedia.com)
