An athletics star who is 'set to make £10 million' has exited the games early, after a below-par showing during the pole vault.
Molly Caudery, 24, went into the Olympics with a lot of expectation on her shoulders, with some touting her to become one of the most successful athletes in the UK.
Her specialty is in pole vault, and as the 2024 World Indoor champion, silver medallist at the Commonwealth Games and bronze medalist at the European Athletics Championships, she was eager to make a name for herself at her first Olympic games.
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Team GB athletes don't win any money to go with their medals, but Caudery has been touted to earn millions of pounds through her success.
Caudery has a sports science degree to her name and is signed with W Model management.
Sports finance expert Rob Wilson said to investment platform Saxo that the athlete could make £10 million from her athletics career alone, with the chance of that multiplying by ten through other avenues.
“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,” he explained.
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"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."
The Adidas athlete also holds the British national record for the women's pole vault with a best of 4.92m, with many saying that she is destined for greatness.
But with all that expectation, comes pressure.
Caudery was in pieces after she failed to clear 4.55m in the qualification stage, which was 0.35m higher than other athletes' first attempts, as she clipped the bar on her way down from her third and final attempt.
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The pole vaulter was in tears as she spoke to BBC Sport.
"It’s totally heartbreaking, not the Olympic experience I was hoping for. I’m just so sorry to everyone back at home," she said
She continued: "I wish I could’ve done better for everyone and myself of course. But I’m going to try and learn from this. It’s still an Olympic experience and I’ll take everything I can from it."
The reporter asked her what went wrong exactly, to which she said: "It’s honestly what I’ve been asking myself. I felt great, I’m in the best shape of my life and I had an amazing warm-up.
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"I didn’t feel too nervous - I love a big crowd. For some reason, that I don't know right now, it wasn’t my day. I’ll go and talk to my coach and hopefully figure some things out. I’ll just use this as an experience, learn from it and try and move on."
The athlete will be eager to bounce back from this set back, and build herself, as well as her name, back up.
She has over 320k Instagram followers, with whom she shares sporting and personal snaps, and though she says that she doesn't know where they 'really came from', Caudery will want to continue building that up while training for her next major competition.
Joshua Nair