Suzy Favor-Hamilton ran the 800m and 1,500m for the United States in three Olympics, from 1992 to 2000, and now works as a motivational speaker. But that is not the only string to her bow, it has emerged. Under the name Kelly Lundy, Ms Favor-Hamilton, a married 44-year-old mother of three, has been working in Las Vegas as a $600-an-hour escort.
While she hid her identity online, many of her clients knew who she was. One of them contacted US website the Smoking Gun, and outed her.
Ms Favor-Hamilton, who lives in a $600,000 house in Madison, Wisconsin, appears not to be in financial difficulty. Along with the real-estate brokerage she owns with her husband, she also does publicity work for, among others, Disney's running programme and the Wisconsin Potato and Vegetable Growers Association.
She said: "I have been seeking the help of a psychologist for the past few weeks and will continue to do so after I have put things together. I do not expect people to understand, but the reasons for doing this made sense to me at the time and were very much related to depression."
She has maintained she knew what she was doing, and takes full responsibility for her actions, after it emerged her husband was aware of her work and had tried to stop it.
Prostitution is illegal in Las Vegas, but Ms Favor-Hamilton said that she had never considered the legal ramifications of her work.
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