Why long jumper Darya Klishina turned down a $200k a month indecent 'job offer'

Getting fame and attention as an athlete is usually a positive thing, as it usually leads to even more opportunities. While fame has certainly brought Darya Klishina new opportunities, they aren't exactly all above board – and one was especially offensive.

The long jumper, who won silver at the World Championships and two golds at the European Indoor Championships according to World Athletics, revealed that one man presented an incredibly rude business opportunity to her – an indecent proposal, if you will.

Klishina received the shocking proposal in 2020, when the Russian athlete was 29 years old and training in the United States.

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According to her, a man sent her a private message via Instagram to set up a transactional relationship.

The athlete described the incident in detail to a Russian sports outlet, which was then covered by The Sun. "I was offered to be an escort. The message came from an unknown person from the US, in a direct message. It's been a few months now, but I was shocked because I didn't expect something like that. I’m not somebody who swears at people and just answered him back with, 'Sorry but I am not interested in this offer'."

However, the man didn't take no for an answer: "He then got back to me saying, 'Wait, don't refuse straight away. You don't even know the conditions and the amount I’m offering’."

She said the unknown man offered her $200,000 a month (about £156,000), as reported by The Sun, but even that amount of money couldn't sway the Russian: "No, that's all, goodbye."

“Do I really look like a woman who would agree to this?”, Klishina asked, to which the man highlighted to Klishina that she once posed for an adult magazine.

"I have nothing to be ashamed of," Klishinia responded, according to The Sun "we all, let's say, commit youthful sins. You do it without thinking about what impact it will have on your career or on your living next to top sport. I see it as something from the past. And now I would say 'no' 200%."

When she started working with management agency IMG, Klishina tried to remove the photos from the Internet: "There are not as many of them circulating online as before. In Russia they are still easy to find, but once outside it becomes a lot more difficult," she said according to The Sun.

In this context, the long jumper added: "by the way, they now call me every year to pose for Maxim magazine, but I don't do it. They want everyone to take off their clothes, but I have a different image now," The Sun quoted her as saying.

Klishina was born on January 15, 1991 in the Russian city of Tver. She played volleyball until she was 13, but then switched to the long jump, the sport in which she became internationally known, according to Fox Sports.

Klishina's long jump career took off when she was discovered by Kazakh coach Olga Shishigina, a former Olympic 100-meter hurdles champion. Shishigina saw a natural talent in Klishina and decided to take her under her wing.

In 2007, at the age of 16, she made her mark at international level when she won gold at the Youth World Championships in Ostrava, Czech Republic, with a jump of 6.47 meters, as reported by World Athletics.

Among the professionals, she achieved fifth place at the 2010 World Indoor Championships with a jump of 6.62 meters. That was a warm up for 2011, when she celebrated her first major success: gold at the European Indoor Championships, with a personal record of 6.80 meters.

Klisjina also took part in the U23 European Championships in Ostrava in 2011. There she took gold with the best jump of her career: 7.05 meters.

That same year and in 2012, she finished seventh and fourth respectively at the World Championships in Daegu and Istanbul (indoor) with jumps of 6.50 and 6.85 meters, according to World Athletics.

Her second major success as a professional long jumper came in 2013 when she won gold again at the European Indoor Championships in Paris. She extended her title from 2011 and broke her personal best with 7.01 meters, her best-ever indoor performance, according to World Athletics.

Due to her unstoppable rise in the athletics world, she moved from Russia to the United States. There she trained in Bradenton (Florida) with, among others, American long jumper Tianna Bartoletta.

In 2014 she won bronze at the European Championships in Zurich with a jump of 6.65 meters and achieved success in Rome and Cheboksary, Russia. However, things still did not work out at the World Cup, as evidenced by her tenth place in Beijing in 2015.

2016 was a special year for Klishina after the International Athletics Federation (IAFF) gave her special permission to participate in her first Olympic Games as an independent athlete, while Russia was excluded due to doping violations. She finished ninth with a jump of 6.63 meters.

"I am neither a traitor nor a Nazi conspirator," Klishina said at the time, as reported by The Guardian, following criticism from Russia for being the only one from the country at the Games. "Insulting me and calling me a traitor to the homeland does not seem right to me. I am now under pressure and receiving more and more attention, which is not always positive," she added.

Only a year later came the big moment of her sports career, when she won silver at the 2017 World Championships in London with a jump of 7 meters. She also participated there as a neutral athlete after permission from the IAFF.

Klishina graduated in sports economics from Moscow State University of Physical Education, Sports, Youth and Tourism. She is not only a great athlete, but also a model and has been the poster child for brands such as Nike, Red Bull and Swatch. She is also a social media sensation with more than 350,000 followers on Instagram.

All of this adds up to a very respectable athletics career, one which was undermined greatly by one man's immoral offer. But it appears money can't buy everything...

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