For a lot of U.S. Olympic athletes, going for gold also can imply going broke as they shell out 1000’s of {dollars} for elite teaching and tools whereas forgoing employment to coach across the clock. Athletes have reported counting on meals stamps, racking up bank card debt and resorting to crowdfunding to make it to the Video games.
On Wednesday, america Olympic and Paralympic Committee introduced a brand new monetary help program for all Workforce USA athletes — a $100,000 retirement profit per every Olympic Video games that they take part in.
This program seeks to handle the monetary challenges athletes face, which “have led many to choose between leaving their sports to find full-time work or continuing to train and compete while struggling with poverty or financial insecurity,” in response to a 2024 report by the Fee on the State of U.S. Olympics and Paralympics.
Whereas a choose few well-known athletes make tens of millions from sponsorship offers, many Workforce USA members wrestle to make ends meet.
Below the brand new program, athletes will likely be eligible to start receiving their $100,000 retirement funds 20 years after the Video games they competed in or after they flip 45, whichever comes later. The advantages add up over a number of Olympic Video games, that means that athletes who participated in three Video games, for instance, would obtain $300,000 from this system. The advantages will likely be paid out over a four-year interval.
Due to the two-decade delay in funds, these advantages won’t put an finish to athletes’ monetary struggles whereas they’re coaching. Nonetheless, they may assist to supply a security internet for when athletes’ Olympic careers are over.
USOPC Chair Gene Sykes known as this system a “springboard that will propel these athletes to even greater heights beyond their Olympic and Paralympic careers.”
Ross Stevens, a Workforce USA supporter and the founder and chief govt of Stone Ridge Holdings Group, offered a $100-million donation — the biggest in USOPC historical past — to determine the Stevens Monetary Safety Awards, which is able to present the retirement advantages to athletes.
“I do not believe that financial insecurity should stop our nation’s elite athletes from breaking through to new frontiers of excellence,” Stevens mentioned in an announcement.
The Stevens Monetary Safety Awards will start with the athletes who take part within the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympic and Paralympic Video games and proceed at the very least by way of the 2032 Video games, with a purpose of turning into a everlasting program.
Along with the $100,000 retirement profit athletes will achieve for every Olympics they take part in, they may also accrue $100,000 in life insurance coverage advantages, bringing the full monetary advantages bundle to $200,000 per Video games. Life insurance coverage advantages will likely be distributed to athletes’ household or chosen beneficiaries upon their loss of life.
America is among the solely international locations that doesn’t present authorities funding to its Olympic athletes.
As a substitute, the USOPC, the nationwide governing physique liable for supporting and overseeing Workforce USA, is liable for offering monetary assist for athletes within the type of stipends, grants and medical health insurance. Additionally they present direct funds of $37,500 for gold medals, $22,500 for silver and $15,000 for bronze.
The USOPC operates solely on personal donations and sponsorships. For a lot of athletes, this monetary help will not be sufficient to assist them throughout coaching, in response to the 2024 report.
The report factors to the expertise of Olympic short-track skater Emily Scott, who struggled to get by on meals stamps and a part-time job at a surgical provide manufacturing facility after her USOPC month-to-month stipend was minimize from $1,950 to $600 a month.
“The last thing you want to be worried about in a year like this is being able to pay your rent and eat, and you want to eat healthy,” she instructed USA In the present day in 2013. That was fairly onerous. … However I’m not the one one struggling.”
The report factors out that monetary challenges will be magnified for Paralympic athletes, who “often face much higher costs for specialized training and adapted-sport equipment. … Sports prosthetics and adaptive gear can cost thousands of dollars and are rarely covered by health insurance.”
Many athletes depend on donations to make it to the Video games. For the 2024 Paris Olympics, Workforce USA hopefuls raised greater than $1 million on GoFundMe, in response to reporting by USA In the present day.
Sponsorships are additionally an necessary funding supply for Workforce USA members.
Nonetheless, solely the highest tier of well-known athletes — akin to Simone Biles, Katie Ledecky and Michael Phelps — are capable of safe company sponsorships that present tens of millions of {dollars}.
