Team GB pole vaulter set for £10million payday thanks to Olympics and modelling
Molly Caudery is one of Team GB's brightest stars at the 2024 Olympics and could become a household name in Paris, before making millions away from the track.
Team GB star Molly Caudery has been tipped to earn an astonishing £10million after the Games. The pole vaulter is hoping to bring home a medal at the Paris 2024 Olympics after a hugely impressive year both on and off the field.
Caudery, 24, made waves in the athletics world by clinching silver at the 2022 Commonwealth Games. She followed it up with a bronze at the 2024 European Athletics Championships, as well as claiming victory at the World Indoor Championships in March.
She secured a deal to become an Adidas athlete after a fifth place finish at the World Championships in Budapest last August. Success at the Games next week will only see her fame and wealth grow even more exponentially.
But this could be just the beginning for Caudery as she looks to transcend her sport, according to sports finance expert Rob Wilson. Speaking exclusively to investment platform Saxo, Wilson suggested that Caudery could pocket £1m from athletics alone, with the potential to amass over ten times that amount by capitalising on her burgeoning profile outside the sport.
Wilson said: "Most athletes have alignments with other sectors - where philosophy and skills meet. For Molly, the connections with modelling present unique marketing opportunities for endorsing products and propelling her own personal brand forward.
"Success at the Olympics helps activate these opportunities, but more importantly, if she comes across on camera well, and can generate interest in herself, then brands follow. If she maintains her sporting commitments, as with Keely, we would be talking about earnings in excess of £10m. If linked to modelling and its associated industries, this figure could be ten times that."
Caudery, who holds a sports science degree from Loughborough University, was reportedly attached to W Model Management earlier this year. She has also amassed a legion of followers on social media by sharing snippets of her intense training sessions, along with striking modelling and holiday photos.
"I don't know where it really came from," Caudery confessed about her massive social media presence earlier this year. She is currently dating high jump star and fellow Team GB member Joel Clarke-Khan, who also models for FORTE Management.
She wouldn't be the first athlete to transition into a global star through brand modelling, should she choose that path. Athletes like Emma Raducanu, Eileen Gu and Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone have all been endorsed by renowned brands and achieved incredible success in the process.
Ahead of the Games, Caudery admitted that being part of Team GB was the realisation of a lifelong dream. "It feels absolutely amazing," Caudery told Eurosport.
"This has been my absolute dream, my childhood dream, and I'm really getting to live it. The Olympics, it's just the pinnacle, isn't it? I remember watching London 2012 from my grandma's living room, watching Jess Ennis and Usain Bolt and just thinking, 'that's who I want to be'. Ever since then, I've done everything I can to make it be me."
When asked how she will deal with the pressure in the French capital, she confidently responded: "I quite enjoy it. People say, 'are you going to crumble under the pressure? Or what are the media saying, what are the fans and the public saying?’
"But at the end of the day, I love this sport, I love what I do, I love competing. So for me to be out there doing everything I love, I don't feel all the external pressures, I'm just enjoying the moment. Technically I know exactly what I need to do and I just need to execute that on the day."