19-Year-Old Olympian Says $70 DoorDash Salads Are An Investment In His Body And That's As Good An Excuse To Justify The Obscene Cost Of Food Delivery As Any

I don't know if you've had food delivered recently, but the cost of it borders on extortion. Still, you run into times when it's still your only option, so it's good that Olympic gymnast Frederick Richard did some mental gymnastics to justify spending more than a tank of gas for a mid-sized sedan on a salad from DoorDash.

19-year-old Richard is slated to appear at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris as a member of the United States gymnastics team.

Of course, being an athlete at the highest level means really keeping tabs on what you eat.

So, Richard revealed in a recent interview with CNBC that he sometimes does that through an occasional DoorDash splurge.

“One thing I splurge on? Definitely DoorDash,” Richard said. “I’m seeing $70 meals for like a salad sometimes, and I’m like, I don’t know how this got to $70. But at least it’s healthy. So I’m investing in my body.”

No, I didn't make a typo (for once), he actually said he'll drop $70 on a salad.

Prices For Delivery Services Like DoorDash Are Obscene Unless You Consider It An Investment In Your Body Like Frederick Richard Does

We've all run into this kind of thing with delivery services. I remember one time having a hankering for an Italian Beef sandwich. For the price of having the sandwich delivered to my apartment, I could've opened my own Portillo's franchise.

...Alright, it wasn't that expensive, but it was still way more than if I just hopped in my car or asked my girlfriend very nicely to pick it up.

I can't justify that kind of convenience upcharge... unless I consider it an investment in my body like Richard does. Of course for that to work you need to be ordering salads and quinoa bowls, not hoagies and chicken tenders. But still, it's not the worst argument to swallow that pill of paying $70 for food that would cost a fraction of that if you just picked it up yourself.

Richard also talked about how he tips his drivers (which is sometimes another form of food delivery extortion) and revealed that he has tipped as much as $100,

“When I just feel like giving back, I’ll give them 50 bucks or 100 bucks,” he says. “It’s the nicest thing possible.”

Dude. One time I tipped $5 because the restaurant was about three minutes away by car and felt like Thurston Howell III. If I tipped $100 I'd expect the driver to run several more errands in addition to my delivering my Taco Bell order.

We'll probably hear more from Frederick Richard next summer. If he doesn't ink a deal with DoorDash (or maybe UberEats swoops in and signs him) that is a massive opportunity.

He is single-handedly putting some drivers' kids through college.

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