The 2024 Summer Olympics are but a memory at this point, but for Public Enemy rapper Flavor Flav the flame burns on. The excitable hip-hop hype man isn’t done boosting the names and stories of U.S. athletes, including the paralympians who are gearing up to take the stage in Paris next week.
“THIS is just one of the many @gofundme for the @Olympics and @Paralympics that I support,” tweeted Flav about the games that will take place from August 28-Sept. 8. “Imagine spending 18 years taking ya kid to every practice and game and working 2-3 jobs to buy equipment,,, and then not being able to watch them play the biggest game of they life.”
Flav was responding to a post from Paralympic sprinter Nick Mayhugh, who earlier this month wrote, “HELP SEND MY PARENTS TO PARIS! [gold medal emoji]. I created a @gofundme to help pay for expenses to send my parents to the #Paralympics! They’ve never been out of the country, & couldn’t watch me compete in Tokyo due to COVID. Any & all donations are appreciated!” The rapper was one of more than 300 people who’ve donated anywhere from $5-$500 to the cause; he appears to have donated $100 under his birth name, William Drayton. So far, the campaign has raised $11,126 of its $10,000 goal.
Three-time gold medalist Mayhugh is a 28-year-old Paralympian who just qualified for his second Paralympic team. The athlete who discovered he had cerebral palsy at age 14, helped the U.S. Men’s National Para Soccer team win its first bronze medal at the 2019 Para Pan American Games and then switched to track for the Tokyo Olympics, where he won a trio of golds in the 100M T37, 200m T37 and the 4X100m medley at the 2021 Games.
“I am humbly asking for any and everyone’s help to get my parents over to Paris to watch me compete for Team USA and bringing home more gold medals!” Mayhugh wrote in his GoFundMe.
Flav has been all-in with the U.S. squad this year, pledging $1,000 and a cruise for all the members of the U.S. Women’s Water Polo team and helping to cover rent costs for 24-year-old discus thrower Veronica Fraley and, before it was restored, offering gymnast Jordan Chiles a giant, bejeweled bronze clock in place of the bronze medal that was briefly stripped from her over a technicality.
The friendship with the water polo squad rambled on to Las Vegas recently, where the PE hype man got hype with the athletes at Resorts World on Saturday night, after being welcomed to the resort with a giant American flag display on the hotel’s facade. “imma so proud of all these women. Look at all the support and attention brought to this sport and women’s athletics. We changing the game and that is something BIG to celebrate,” Flav wrote on Instagram alongside video and photos of him partying with the women.
See Flav’s tweet and Vegas party video below and check out Mayhugh’s GoFundMe here.