Joining Olivia Dunne and Angel Reese in Amazon Documentary, Konnor McClain Shares How NIL “Changed” Her Life

Published 05/02/2024, 11:50 PM EDT

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Just a few days back, Olivia Dunne has inked her multi-million Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) deal with Passes, a behemoth helping content creators monetize their social media. On the other hand, Angel Reese, the WNBA Pro from LSU, stood in the eighth position for bagging hefty NIL earnings. Now those NIL deals are called sponsorship for her as she elevated herself to the Pro level. But Konnor McClain has her own takes on the NIL deals. She is going to share the screen with Olivia Dunne and Angel Reese in an Amazon documentary based on this. On the way, she gave a few insights into the matter. 

The NIL effect came into reality in 2021 after a thorough change was instituted in NCAA’s regulations. Since then, Olivia Dunne has landed several NIL deals, including Vuori. Along similar lines, McClain claimed that the NIL deal changed her life, irrespective of her playing field. “I guess I would still be an elite (gymnast) and still going at it, but my life completely changed once NIL came in as a factor,” the LSU Tigers’ freshman stated in a conversation with NBC Olympics. In the Amazon documentary, “The Money Game,” she will come up with a detailed version of it. As of now, the Las Vegas native holds several NIL deals with the brands she prefers in her personal life as well. 

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Ozone, the leotard brand, is one among those. Furthermore, Konnor McClain rejoices in sipping the Celsius drink that also supports her. This year, another brand, Get Gordon Gymnastics, roped her into the NIL deal with her colleague Aleah Finnegan. The gymnastic brand focused on McClain’s attitude toward breaking stereotypes. Meanwhile, Konnor McClain is steadily following that route. Despite missing the last two seasons because of her injury, the teenage gymnast still came under the umbrella of The Livvy Fund, driven by Olivia Dunne and Bayou Traditions to receive the ambassador role from the Accelerator Active Energy brand. 

With such success, Konnor McClain now eyes for spreading awareness regarding the phases she has gone through. The documentary is a part of it. 

Olivia Dunne and Konnor McClain want to show the different sides 

After drawing attention from Sports Illustrated, both Olivia Dunne and Angel Reese received a feature on the cover of SI’s money issue. Eventually, the available data is saying that Olivia Dunne, Angel Reese, and their ilks in Jayden Daniels and Flau’jae Johnson garner 20 million followers across social media- the highest among all other American colleges. Those humongous numbers compelled director Drea Cooper to focus on the Baton Rouge college. But Konnor McClain prefers to spread her story distinctly. 

“Everything isn’t as easy as it looks on social media … People from the outside world see us on social media, but we also have a lot more to us and a lot more personality going on inside”, she added to this perspective. That is one of the principal reasons Konnor McClain signed up for the Amazon documentary- to be vocal without social media interference. She wants to display her fight when she is handling both the elite and the college gymnastics simultaneously and planning to make a comeback in the national contests. “I wanted people to have a look at my life and know that it’s not that easy with NIL and college and elite gymnastics,” Konnor McClain retorted. With that, she wrests the arguments on the audience. 

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Written by:

Prasun Chakrabarty

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Prasun Chakrabarty is an Olympic Sports Writer for EssentiallySports, who specializes in covering aquatic arena events. Post his experiences with popular publications including PinkVilla, Prasun began his days in ES, by actively covering two prime events - 2023 US Open Swimming Championships and the 2024 TYR Pro Swim Series. Prasun's coverage extends beyond the pool, and he takes specific interest in the progress of the triangular rivalry between track and field stars, Sha’Carri Richardson, Shericka Jackson and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce. You can follow him on:-
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Edited by:

Bhujaya Ray Chowdhury