Kurt Adams Rozentals, a British canoeist and former member of Paddle UK’s elite program for Olympic hopefuls, has been handed a two-year competition ban. The fine follows a month-long outcry after he posted a pornographic video to Instagram. This disciplinary action follows a Paddle UK suspension imposed on him in April. Rozentals has been deselected from the Olympic programme as a result of his behaviour.
That explicit video – which Rozentals has taken down after the controversy it ignited, and subsequent negative media coverage he received – became the focus of the firestorm. Following his suspension, Paddle UK revealed that the athlete had intentionally lied to the media about why he was originally suspended. They argued that he misled the public when he implied that it was related to his OnlyFans social media page.
Rozentals indeed is serving a suspension of 5 years, as he told in an interview with BBC Sport. He stated his very firm conviction that the ban was unwarranted.
“While I understand the video could be described as crazy, it was not illegal and certainly shouldn’t be the reason for banning an athlete,” – Kurts Adams Rozentals.
Rozentals tackled his misconceptions around finances, confiding that he had thought £16,000 sounded like a lot of money to train. He soon discovered that this wouldn’t be enough for him to train full-time. This left him with no choice but to balance pursuing his athletic dreams with short-term financial security.
Retrospect is 20/20 of course, but I might not hotlink like that today. I wanted to share some context with what was happening then that motivated me to film it and post it. That was the first time in my life that I felt tangible progress in my financial life. This was the first time ever that I could afford to pay for the training myself, he elaborated.
Rozentals reflected on this moment as one of many positive changes happening with his money. For the first time, he felt confident he could self-fund his training. Beyond an incredible achievement of athletic discovery, this miss for Proctor represented so much more.