Australian athlete slams the Paris Olympics for ticket change and absurd prices

Australian Olympic water polo player Matilda Kearns has called out the Paris Games for a change to their ticketing system and exposed the eye-watering prices fans will be hit with.

Kearns, who is the daughter of Wallabies legend Phil Kearns, took to TikTok to announce that athletes competing at the Olympics this year will not be getting a single free ticket for a family member or friend.

In the clip, she showed her laptop displaying ticket prices, with one seat costing $1625 AUD. 

‘POV our family and friends will have to pay up to $1625 per ticket to watch just ONE of our games at the Olympics,’ she wrote in the clip.

Kearns captioned the post: ‘We don’t even get ONE free ticket for our families.’

In the comment section, she noted that the Paris Games are the first to implement this rule. 

‘Every other Olympics has, but not this one for some reason! Not even ONE ticket,’ she wrote. 

Kearns’s followers were outraged by the move. 

‘Surely Aus Olympic team purchases tickets for your fam… I mean you guys are representing our country you deserve support in the stands,’ replied one TikTok user.

‘That’s ridiculous! And how can they even justify those ticket prices?!’ said another.

‘I really wanted to go but it’s so expensive,’ posted a third.

Kearns was a member of the Australian Stingers team that competed at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, where the squad finished fifth.

Kearns was appalled that athletes competing at the Games were not offered a free ticket for a family member or friend

They were bundled out in the quarter-finals after losing 9-8 to Russia, and Kerans wants to do better this time.

‘Crowds were one thing missing from Tokyo because no-one was able to get there,’ she told Sports Hounds. 

‘We went there to medal and just lucked out in the quarter final against Russia and they beat us by one. We look back and we’re disappointed with fifth.

‘People say ‘awesome you finished fifth’ but we were there to get a medal and didn’t quite make it so that’s definitely some fuel for Paris.

‘I want to obviously beat fifth but really I want to be on top of that podium. I’m not going to settle for much less than that.’