Las Vegas prostitute

US runner admits she was $600-a-night prostitute

One of America’s best ever female middle distance runners has admitted becoming a $600-a-night (£370) Las Vegas prostitute after her career ended.

Suzy Favor Hamilton competing at the Sydney Games

Suzy Favor Hamilton, 44, a married mother, who represented the United States at the 1992, 1996 and 2000 Olympic Games, said she turned to prostitution while she was suffering from depression and marriage problems.

She was working as an estate agent but led a double life in the employ of a high class escort service for the last year, attending appointments in Las Vegas, and also in Los Angeles, Houston and Chicago. Her secret was exposed by The Smoking Gun website.

In a series of posts on her Twitter account the former athlete said she had made a “huge mistake,” adding: “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.”

Favor Hamilton did not secure an Olympic medal but won seven US national titles in her career.

She lives with her husband in a $600,000 home in Wisconsin and did not appear to be in any financial distress.

She said her husband was aware of her escort work, but that he “tried, he tried to get me to stop. He wasn’t supportive of this at all.”

Favor Hamilton worked under the alias “Kelly Lundy” and told some of her clients about her true identity. She suspected one of them leaked it.

The former runner said she was “drawn to escorting in large part because it provided many coping mechanisms for me when I was going through a very challenging time with my marriage and my life.”

Favor Hamilton said: “As crazy as I know it seems, I never thought I would be exposed, therefore never hurting anybody. I fully intend to make amends and get back to being a good mother, wife, daughter, and friend.”