Americans watching their favorite countrymen and women compete in the Paris Olympics revere the stars giving it their all for athletic glory, but they may not be aware of how the athletes struggle financially.
The glamor of the games hides a financial reality for the young athletes—the United States is one of the few countries that does not pay its Olympians one dime. The people stepping up to the podium are just ordinary Americans like the viewing audience, and the outrageous inflation in the U.S. over the past several years has hit them just as hard.
Sprinter Fred Kerley, 29, recently told reporters that getting ready to attend and compete in the games was a monetary struggle. He colorfully described it as “It’s f—ed.”
Despite suspiciously positive news reports that U.S. inflation is rapidly “cooling,” what this leaves out is the fact that prices are still objectively higher than they were before the pandemic. It may be nice to know that inflation is down from its peak of around 9 percent, but regular Americans are still paying $7 for a carton of eggs that used to cost $2. And it’s everything, everywhere: gasoline, housing prices, construction materials, fast food.
Just since 2021, prices for U.S. consumers are up 20 percent.
To make ends meet—including the cost of getting to the games and living while there—U.S. Olympians rely on corporate sponsorship deals, sales of branded merchandise, and for the select few, a cash prize for the top winners. A contestant who wins a gold medal gets $37,500, $22,500 for a silver medal, and for bronze, $15,000.
Kerley, the runner, said he thought that if he were competing for any country but the U.S. that he would be “living like a king.” But the same daily work struggle to make enough money to live on simply continues for him and other athletes even while the world watches them reach for glory. Kerley said many of his teammates work an extra job just to get by as they practice and compete.
This distracts from the focus necessary to achieve excellence in a sport, he said.
Track and field competitor Tara Davis-Woodall said the lack of pay from the U.S. puts American athletes at a disadvantage during the Paris games as it’s “uber expensive.” She said she knows “plenty” of teammates who have to take second jobs, and who are “trying to scrape coins” and borrow money from their parents just to keep going.
A recent poll found that more than three-quarters of respondents have had to cut their spending in a major way just to meet basic costs like rent and electricity.
