Vanessa Jones is a good enough 400-meter runner that she has a shot at making the U.S. Olympic team, but unfortunately for Jones, training with the best private track coaches is expensive, and track doesn’t pay well unless you’re already an Olympian.
Fortunately for Jones, her older brother has both a generous nature and a newly deposited $8 million signing bonus.
Marvin Jones, who just got $8 million for signing a five-year, $40 million contract with the Lions, is Vanessa’s brother. Marvin is paying for all of Vanessa’s training while she live and works out at an elite training center in Phoenix and attempts to make the Olympic team.
“I didn’t think twice about it,” Marvin told Michael Rothstein of ESPN. “She needed to be somewhere where she could be with the professionals and be around them to see, ‘Hey, I belong here, too. I can progress enough to make this push to Rio. That was an important thing to me, not only that she is my baby sister, but she is somebody that can actually go out there and compete, you know?”
If Vanessa Jones does make the Olympics, Marvin isn’t sure if he’ll be there to see her. The Olympics fall right in the middle of the preseason.