Bethesda's Katie Ledecky, who set multiple Olympic records already during the Paris Games, and DC native Kevin Durant, who starred in a standout performance against South Sudan, stand to gain a new following, ActionNetwork found.
The organization collected info on the Instagram accounts of more than 500 athletes representing the Red, White, and Blue to find out "who has the largest following and who could potentially earn the most money on social media."
ActionNetwork reported that Kevin Durant, who has more than 56 million followers, could potentially earn $134,939 per Instagram post - behind only fellow basketball players LeBron James ($1.59 million) and Stephen Curry ($560,000).
Ledecky and her 677,000 followers landed further down the list at number 32, but can still earn a modest $6,773 per Instagram post, the report states.
"To count potential earnings per post on Instagram, an industry accepted standard of 10 dollars per post per 1000 followers was used (however, these figures might differ in the end, depending on individual negotiations)," researchers said.
"The Instagram followers of the 2024 Olympics participants were collected before the start of the Olympics and they are being tracked throughout the tournament."
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