They Need Coins and Medals

Olympic athletes should get paid along with their winning medals so that they don’t have to feel compelled to go on dancing shows in order to continue with their fame and to make a living. It is astonishing to know how little money generated by the Olympics is being funneled to the athletes who are essential to the games.  Billions of dollars are generated that simply enriches the Olympic Committee. Even if an athlete is playing for a wealthy country, often the athlete is struggling to make a living. The Olympics is the greatest spectacle in all of sports with its elaborate opening and closing ceremonies where no cost is spared to put on a spectacular show. During the last Olympic Games half the planet tuned I to watch at least parts of the show and games.

Five years ago the games in London became the most watched TV event in history with 200 million American viewers. The popularity all turns into hundreds of millions of dollars for the United States Olympic Committee. In fact over the last decade the USOC has taken in over a billion dollars in revenue. So we need to know where that money does not go. Many or most do NOT get any financial help from the USOC. Why? Not only are the athletes broke, most are in debt running up thousands in credit card fees. If training for the Olympics and even winning medals declaring you are one of the best people in your skill in the world isn’t worth making a living than what is?

The young athletes know nothing else in their lives since quite often training and skill sets start from their childhood for 20 years till they are experts in their sport. The exceptional athletes make millions each in Basketball, Baseball, Hockey and many other sports in America. Why not give Olympians some coins? It is not unusual that an Olympic athlete like Alex Pullin a gold winner in Snowboarding has to pay $30,000 just to get to the games for training, equipment and air fare. The Olympic Committee won’t even pay to get them to the games? The athletes can’t even qualify in America. They need to compete to get to be in the games in places like Austria, France, Argentina or Italy. Many can’t afford to even get to the qualifying games.

Alex works as a plumber to make a living. The USOC only gave him a $1,500 stipend and some health insurance. Yet when an athlete breaks records and wins medals, the USOC will take most of the credit for the achievement. Olympian multiple time champion Michael Trapp is an auto mechanic but also a great skier. Nearly every other country feeds their exceptional athletes with a steady stream of income. Not the United States. They even get paid to train full time. Congress needs to get off their ass and to change things and NOT hand over all responsibility for our American athletes to the United States Olympic Committee who clearly is NOT doing the right thing for our exceptional athletes.

The USOC is listed as a non-profit that receives NO government oversight. Maybe Trump should be getting all worked up over this issue and not DACA kids or food stamps. Mike Trapp had to start a go fund me page just to get him to the Olympics so he could win medals in snowboarding for American pride. Dozens of other aspiring medal winners had their hands out for money too. This is a disgusting reputation for our so called great America.

There are the exception of the most famous names in the Olympics that also get product endorsements but that is the exception. There are still hundreds of broke athletes in the Olympics. So the $200 million in revenue the USOC makes doesn’t pay a dime in taxes because of their non-profit status. More than 100 employees are being paid six figure salaries.  The CEO Scott Blackman was paid more than a million dollars last year. He gives himself a 10% raise each year. The USOC gives themselves all paid perks like meetings at fancy resorts. They bring their families to events all paid for. Meanwhile our athletes are installing toilets and fixing cars just to get to an event.

The USOC is sitting on $574million dollars in cash and assets despite the gross spending they do on themselves. Over the next 15 years they are guaranteed an additional $800 million dollars from TV rights alone over the next 15 years. Yet they have no problem with their mules I mean athletes living below the poverty level. Congress needs to get involved in the redistribution of the profits to get to the athletes so that they don’t have to be demeaned on TV shows like Dancing With The Stars where they literally have to dance like a circus monkey for a glitter ball and some basic coin voted on by some couch potato who knows nothing about their sport or dancing.