The Olympics of Who's Who in Paris

For Olympian Nayel Nassar, a show jumping gold medal in Paris would be priceless.

The culmination of a lifetime of hard work, dedication, and awe-inspiring skill, topping the podium is the kind of achievement that money truly can’t buy. And, considering his father-in-law is Bill Gates – the world’s fourth richest man, thought to be worth £88 billion – there really isn’t all that much else that money can’t buy for Nayel Nassar.

The 33-year-old is the husband of Jennifer Gates, the eldest daughter of Bill and Melinda Gates; the couple have a daughter, 16-month-old Leila, and are expecting a second child together. Despite Bill and Melinda divorcing in 2021 (the settlement was reportedly one of the most expensive in history), the pair have remained ‘friendly’, and both have been publicly supporting son-in-law Nayel on his bid for Olympic glory.

Born to Egyptian architect parents in Chicago and raised in Kuwait before moving to California, Nayel is a mainstay of the Grand Prix circuit. A keen equestrian since the age of five, the Stanford graduate has garnered some prestigious silverware throughout his career. In 2019, he won the Longines Grand Prix of New York, becoming the first rider to claim victory at the Longines Speed Challenge and the Longines Grand Prix at the same event, on the same horse. Paris 2024 is Nayel’s second Olympics, having made history as part of Egypt’s first show jumping team in 60 years at Tokyo 2020, where he placed 24th.

Nayel Nassar is not, of course, the only billionaire scion competing for a medal at Paris 2024. Team USA boasts two heiresses on its tennis team alone. Emma Navarro, whose father Ben is the billionaire businessman behind Credit One bank, was ousted from the singles’ tournament by Zheng Qinwen in the third round, blasting her opponent for a ‘cut-throat’ attitude.

The Navarro family, thought to have a $1.5 billion net worth, also owns The Charleston Open, the oldest professional women’s tennis cup in the country – where Emma made her WTA tour debut in 2019 – and Cincinnati’s Western & Southern open, one of the game’s most important Masters’ tournaments, which cost Ben just shy of £240 million.

Also at competing on the courts of Roland Garros is fellow US tennis star Jessica Pegula, who has been ranked as high as third in the world. Pegula’s father, oil baron and sports tycoon Terry Pegula, is worth a reported $7 billion, making him the 365th richest person in the world. When Navarro and Pegula battle it out on court, the combined net worth of their families outnumbers that of The Maldives.

These numbers, of course, all pale in comparison to the Gates family fortune. But this is the Olympic Games. Athletes have trained their whole lives and are competing for far more than cash prizes (incidentally, melting down and selling a Paris gold medal would earn you roughly £740). No one can deny the importance of a financial safety net, but with honor, glory, and a place in the history books up for grabs, billionaire status will be the last thing on the minds of these Olympians.

LeBron James, meanwhile, is the only billionaire competing in the Olympics, part of a star-studded USA men’s basketball team (James made $128.8 million on and off the court between May 2023 and May 2024, according to Forbes).

Some of the highest-paid athletes competing in the Paris summer games are also some of the biggest names in professional basketball, tennis and golf, led by James, a four-time NBA champion. Behind James are Greek forward Giannis Antetokounmpo ($111 million, according to Forbes) and Team USA’s Steph Curry ($102 million). In Olympic golf, Spanish star Jon Rahm leads the pack making $218 million both on the course and off, ahead of Ireland’s Rory McIlroy ($83 million) and Scottie Scheffler ($61 million) of Team USA.