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Gatlin has opened up on a hilarious time he was forced to go home carrying a load of cash in a paperbag instead of having it wired to his account after winning a meet.
American sprint icon Justin Gatlin recently shared a hilarious and somewhat surreal experience he had while handling a large sum of cash after a meet in Daegu, South Korea back in 2005.
The sprinting legend, who had won the gold medal in the 100m at the 2004 Athens Olympics and the 2005 World Athletics Championships, often received substantial fees for his participation in subsequent meets.
However, his earnings from the Daegu meet were delivered in a rather unconventional manner.
Following his comfortable victory in the 100m race, Gatlin was due to receive his winnings not through the usual bank transfer, but as a bulk cash payment.
This unusual method of payment left both him and his agent, Renaldo Nehemiah, quite perplexed.
“I haven’t done a lot of gutsy things in my life, but that right there, I had 100k in cash in a brown paper bag one time,” Gatlin recounted on his Ready Set Go podcast.
“I was in Daegu, and they kept trying to pay me in cash, and my agent at the time was like, ‘We can’t take it in cash,’ but I was like, ‘No, take it please, but let’s wire it.’ He was like, ‘You sure?’ And I was like, ‘Before you wire it, can I see it first?’ I had never seen 100k in cash because it was in 2005.”
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Gatlin described the moment when he and his agent brought the cash to his room. “I remember me and my agent taking it to my room.
“We sat on the chair opposite each other, and we sat on the coffee table right in front of us, and we were looking at the stack of money in front of us. I was like, ‘I really want to take it,’ and he was like, ‘I could take about 25 if you could take the rest of it,’ and I was like, ‘You know how much this is? The rest of it?’”
The humorous and candid account of this experience highlights a unique aspect of Gatlin’s storied career, providing fans with a glimpse into the off-track moments that even elite athletes encounter.
Despite the unconventional situation, Gatlin's focus remained on his performance and continued dominance on the track.
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