Logan Campbell, left, lost to eventual bronze medallist Sung Yu-Chi of Taiwan in the first round at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. (Clive Rose/Getty Images)

A lot of women will need to have a lot of sex with a lot of men to get Logan Campbell to the 2012 Olympic Games in London, England.

Campbell is a New Zealand taekwondo athlete who has opened a brothel to finance his ambition of winning an Olympic medal at the 2012 Summer Games.

At the Beijing Games last August, Campbell competed in the 68-kilogram category only to be swept aside in the first round by eventual bronze medal winner Sung Yu-Chi of Taiwan.

To do better in London, Campbell figures he needs roughly $200,000 US so that he, a doctor and a coach can travel, train and compete in Europe and Asia in the years before the Games.

Unlike last time, Campbell doesn't want his parents to foot most of the bill.

"My mother has wanted a new kitchen for the past 10 years but hasn't been able to do that because she has spent all her money on my taekwondo," he said.

Hence his turn to the brothel business. He has more than a dozen women handing over half their earnings to him. It is, in his words, "a good money-making industry."

'I'd feel worse selling cigarettes'

New Zealand decriminalized prostitution six years ago.

The parliamentary vote of 60 to 59 in favour, with one lawmaker abstaining, was a measure of how sensitive the issue is.

The result, at least according to government-appointed experts, has been more positive than negative.

In a review last year, they concluded that the Prostitution Reform Act has not led to a surge in prostitution and that "the vast majority of people involved in the sex industry are better off ... than they were previously."

Brothels and prostitutes openly advertise — "Wet & Wild Sunday Special," "Tuesday 3Some: Get your second lady half price!" —and Campbell sees himself as nothing more than a businessman, selling sex as others would kebabs or cars without an ounce of shame.

"I'd feel worse selling cigarettes than doing what I'm doing," he said in a phone interview this week.

"What I'm doing is safe and healthy. I run a real classy place.

"It's not a third world country. All the girls are over 20 years old.

"They are here of their own free will. They make more money than I do."

The minimum charge at Campbell's establishment is $325 US for two hours, including sex, while $1,965 US buys "a whole night with one of our ladies —restaurant, dancing and then back to the hotel."

"We supply everything for them [the girls]: advertising, drivers, security, even condoms," Campbell says, adding his profit margin is 15-20 per cent.

'We travel for 30 hours every time we leave the country'

The one thing he and his country's Olympic committee agree on is that athletes from New Zealand suffer a natural disadvantage: being on the bottom of the world puts them a long way from anywhere other than Australia.

That translates into extra costs and hassle for athletes like Campbell who want to train overseas.

"It's a fact of life for every New Zealand sports person," says Barry Maister, secretary general of the New Zealand Olympic Committee. "We travel for 30 hours every time we leave the country."

But according to Maister, that's hardly an excuse.

Campbell, after all, is not the only Olympic athlete who struggles to make ends meet.

Like it or not, people around the world — including those in countries where prostitution is illegal — look up to these sporting gods.

Being a role model is integral to being an Olympian, and being an Olympian is usually about succeeding through your own sweat, not that of prostitutes.

Perhaps Campbell's case would be stronger if he was selling his own body — not that of others — but he's avoiding that route.

"I've got a girlfriend, and there's no market over here for male escorts," he says.

New Zealand Olympic officials have made it clear that Campbell is unlikely to be selected for London as long as he stays in his current line of work.

The International Olympic Committee said it "generally does not comment on individual athletes whose actions are within the law. However, as a general rule, the IOC would expect athletes to be strong role models for the rest of society and for youth in particular."