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Aussie Olympian Scores Massive Sponsorship After Working At Woolworths To Get To Tokyo

Aussie Olympian Scores Massive Sponsorship After Working At Woolworths To Get To Tokyo

Riley Day will be covered all the way until the Paris 2024 Olympics after becoming a national sensation.

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie

Riley Day has scored a massive sponsorship from Woolworths following her appearance at the 2020 Tokyo Games.

Despite running a personal best in the 200m women's event, it wasn't meant to be for the 21-year-old Queenslander who missed out on a spot for the final.

But she attracted headlines for a different reason.

She went to Tokyo without any main sponsor, meaning she had to fund her way through all the trials and qualifications to earn a spot on the Australian athletics team.

Riley spent three years working at Woolworths stacking shelves and helping customers to save up enough to get to Tokyo.

The supermarket giant has rewarded her in the best way possible by giving her a massive sponsorship.

Woolies wrote on Facebook: "You may recognise Riley Day from her appearance in athletics at the Tokyo Olympic Games, but she's also a star fruit and veg team member from our Beaudesert store in Queensland.

"We are inspired by Riley's efforts in Tokyo, and are proud to announce our sponsorship of Riley through to the 2024 Paris Olympics.

"We're looking forward to supporting Riley's athletic ambitions on the next stage of her green and gold Olympic journey."

It's an awesome achievement and will mean the young athlete can concentrate on her dreams of taking home the gold in three years.

Her reaction after her 200m event cemented her spot as one of the legends from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

While speaking to Channel 7's Bruce McAvaney, she screamed 'holy s**t' into the microphone when discussing her performance.

"That was a much better race than this morning. I've got my groove. Now I hope it's the fastest heat so I can get in the final. Because that is a massive PB. That's awesome," she said.

"I want to be the best and nothing is going to stop me from being the best."

Channel 7

Because she didn't have any sponsors, she hilariously and shamelessly plugged her Instagram account so that everyone watching back home in Australia could support her.

That little shoutout boosted her following from 21,000 users before the event to nearly 110,000 now.

Seven's Jason Richardson made sure to point how how Riley didn't have any corporate sponsorship in the hope an Aussie company or business would support her.

"I'm going to embarrass you, we want Australia to start supporting you. You're working at Woolies in the produce section. I know you do the shopping for John who's 90 and he can't see, and you do that every week. You've got a big heart, you don't have a sponsor," he said.

"C'mon Australia, get behind this young lady!"

Looks like Woolies is backing her all the way to Paris and we truly love to see it.

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: Australia