Some athletes borrow to fund their training, others depend on supportive families. Logan Campbell has opened a brothel.

Mr Campbell, 23, a New Zealand taekwondo champion who finished in the top 16 in the featherweight division at the Beijing Olympics, turned pimp after funding dried up and he feared he was in danger of missing the Games in 2012.

The Beijing campaign cost about $NZ150,000 (£58,000), most of which came from his parents, he told the Sunday Star-Times newspaper. His father, Max, an auctioneer, worked in two jobs to get him to Beijing and Mr Campbell said he was sick of being a burden on his parents.

He is hoping that the new venture, in Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city, will earn him the $NZ300,000 he needs to be a serious medal contender in London. He was beaten in Beijing by the eventual bronze medallist, Sung Yu-Chi of Taiwan.

Mr Campbell, who has taken time off from training to run his “high-class gentleman’s club”, insists he is not really a pimp.

“When people think of a pimp they think of a guy standing around on a street corner with gold chains. Pimps are more tough-type guys. I’m an owner of an escort agency,” he said.

He added that he and his business partner, Hugo Phillips, 20, employed only “smart, attractive” girls. “We don’t treat them like pieces of meat.” His parents were supportive, he added. “Mum was hesitant but she met the girls, a couple came over to her house and she was sweet-as.

“She realised they were just normal people supporting their kids and stuff,” he said.

Licensed prostitution is legal in New Zealand, but Mr Campbell’s sport’s national organisation, Taekwondo New Zealand, was unenthusiastic about his venture. It said it would be taken into account when he was being considered for international competitions.

“Selection takes into account not just performance but also the athlete’s ability to serve as an example to the youth of the country,” John Scholfield, its funding manager, said.

Mr Campbell admitted: “Some people on the team will not think highly of me for doing this.”

It is not the first time the Olympics has been linked with the sex industry. In 1999 it was revealed that the Sydney Games hopeful Nicole Tasker, a cyclist, was lap dancing at an Auckland strip club to raise money.

Against all odds

• Five Canadian women biathlon athletes posed naked with their rifles for a photo shoot designed to raise money for the 2010 Winter Olympics. The sport, made up of skiing and shooting, is not popular in Canada and its team has struggled to raise sponsorship

• An Iraqi slalom skier sold his Ferrari in an attempt to become the country’s first Winter Olympian. Faisal Faisal, who will represent Iraq in the 2010 Winter Olympics, originally opted to be a speed skater but was told it would be impossible as the country has no ice rinks

• Pamela Anderson, the former Baywatch star, stepped in to fund an American gymnast, 25, who had given up on her Olympic hopes. The actress sponsored Mohini Bhardwaj’s appearance at the 2004 Olympics where she won a silver medal

Source: Times Database