![]() Moreover, some of the restrictions around athlete sponsorships and endorsements make it harder for lesser-known competitors to capitalize on their Olympic moment in the sun. “If you’re not a household name, you’re probably not on the top of the endorsement food chain,” said John Grady, a sports law professor at the University of South Carolina. ![]() Big brands aren’t falling over themselves to make giant deals in sports such as judo or archery in the same way they might be for swimming or gymnastics, or take a risk on an athlete that might not make the Olympic cut. Lucrative sponsorship deals are not abundant. US athletes striving toward the Olympics are generally left to their own devices in terms of funding training and travel for most of their careers, and even once they reach the top tier, they might receive a stipend that, while helpful, is not enough for most to live on. Financial restrictions have been dropped, and professional athletes are allowed to compete in almost all of the Olympic events, save wrestling. Since the 1970s, the international and US rules around amateurism and sponsorships have relaxed to make way for athletes to be compensated for their efforts and achievements. The romanticized vision of Olympic athletes is that they’re unpaid amateurs just doing it for the love of sport. The financial reality for most Olympic athletes is much harsher. Athletes like Simone Biles (far right) and Michael Phelps (not pictured) are outliers with their outsize endorsement deals. But there are incredible stories of people who really have to go work in regular jobs, depending on where they are in the world, to earn money just so they can live, and then they’re doing their training on top of it,” said Lee Igel, a clinical professor at the NYU Tisch Institute for Global Sport. “As impressive as someone like Simone Biles is or Michael Phelps has been, their stories get told and their achievements get reported on and analyzed. And that survey was taken before the pandemic, which made many competitors’ financial situations even worse because so many competitions (that often translate to money) were canceled. According to one survey of elite athletes from 48 countries, more than half are financially unstable. The Olympic gold medal gymnast got plenty of well-deserved, high-paying endorsement deals lined up. You cannot watch TV or exist on the internet right now without running into a Simone Biles ad. (For the purposes of this story, I’m going to focus mainly on American athletes.) The vast majority of those athletes are not rich, or close to it. There are more than 600 athletes just on Team USA’s Olympic and Paralympic roster. Some 11,000 athletes are competing in the 2020 Olympic Games, and 4,000 athletes in the Paralympics (beginning in late August). ![]() One NBC executive said they believe this could be the most profitable Games ever.Īnd yet, much of that wealth won’t be shared with the event’s most valuable assets: the athletes themselves. The Associated Press estimates the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which runs the Olympic Games, stands to make $3 billion to $4 billion on television rights for the delayed 2020 Olympics. NBC has paid $7.7 billion for broadcasting rights to show the Olympics through 2032, and it’s already sold $1.25 billion in ads for the Tokyo games. There is a ton of money to be made at the Olympics, even in a year like this. ![]()
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