The U.S. Gold-Medal Olympian Salary: Zero Dollars… Plus Bonuses
Author: Nick
Category: Money
Topics: wealth, work
Shawn Johnson, 2008 gold-medal Olympic gymnast and pint-sized jailbait, will be taking home a whopping paycheck of zero from the U.S. Olympic Committee this year. The same goes for swimming sensation Michael Phelps, beach volleyball vixens Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh, and fencing champ Mariel Zagunis.
Yet somehow, despite the cost of blowing tiny countries like Georgia off the map, Russia is still finding the extra dough to cough up a $150,000 cash prize to any of its Olympians who bring home the gold. Even Afghanistan just gave the country’s first ever medal winner a free house! In fact, the U.S. is one of few countries whose government provides no regular subsidies or payments to its Olympic athletes.
Somehow, though, I suspect Shawn Johnson and her fellow American gold medalists won’t have to worry about keeping roofs over their heads. Johnson, who attends a public high school in Iowa, is expected to score around $1 million in endorsement as a result of her accomplishments in Beijing. Michael Phelps already has six- and seven-figure deals with companies like Visa and AT&T.
For the typical American, a million dollars can go a long way. In fact, if invested wisely, a person of any age could live a decent life off the interest alone. Of course, tell that to any of the thousands of bankrupt former superstar athletes who may have once owned cars more expensive than our houses. Sadly, for Olympians like Johnson and Phelps, endorsements tend to fade as quickly as the Games themselves. And for gymnasts like Johnson, many of whom only get one shot at Olympic gold in the face of ever-increasing competition from the next generation, the sponsorships that follow from Olympic glory rarely guarantee an easy life.
Remember Kerri Strug from the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta? She still scores the occasional tiny commercial deal, but she’s held a variety of “common” jobs since her valiant performance on the vault that led Team USA to gymnastics gold. She’s been everything from an elementary school teacher in San Francisco and Washington, D.C. to an Olympic news correspondent. Shawn Johnson, despite her gold-medal performance on the balance beam in Beijing, probably won’t see endorsement deals quite as grand as Strug’s. Worst of all, by the time the London Summer Games roll around in 2012, Johnson will be 20 years old—ancient in the world of women’s gymnastics.
At least Johnson’s family has indicated that any money from commercial deals would go straight to her college education. But if she wants to keep living the life of a million-dollar Olympian, Johnson may want to consider a high-paying career track like medicine… or software engineering. How about it, Shawn? Get your comp. sci. degree and we can code the night away together…
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59 Responses »
1.
Shawn
August 22nd, 2008 at 5:11 pm
Actually, the USOC gives each athlete a bonus based on the medals they win (I think it’s 50k for gold, 25 for silver and 10 for bronze, but don’t quote me on that).
I also think that there’s a provision for professional athletes (i.e. NBA stars, and tennis stars) that they have to donate the money to charity.
2.
Jerry
August 22nd, 2008 at 9:33 pm
Dot Richardson, former Olympic softball player, set herself up with a great post-athletics insurance policy when she went to medical school, which would lead directly to a residency in orthopedic surgery. Nice work, Dr. Dot.
She’s doing fine… and is a great example to those other young women!
Jerry
3.
Mark
August 23rd, 2008 at 4:19 pm
About 89% of want I just read above is false. You need to do a lot more research.
4.
Ewing
August 24th, 2008 at 1:02 pm
Don’t know where you get your information. I have just watched an interview with Michael Phelps on Channel 4 during his post-olympic visit to London. He made a point of telling the interviewer that US athletes get paid for achieving olympic medals.
5.
Brad
August 24th, 2008 at 7:14 pm
Sounds like someone has a serious crush on Shawn Johnson …
6.
Obbop
August 24th, 2008 at 9:30 pm
Tight butts drive him nuts.
7.
James
August 25th, 2008 at 9:50 am
Pay for college! Yeah right. She is more likely to get a full ride scholarship. What school in their right mind wouldn’t give a scholarship to a gold medal olympian. She will definitely live off of her endorsements. In fact when she returns in 2012 she will probably make even more money. Oh well, here is to the simple guy that lives in normal town USA.
8.
Kyle
August 25th, 2008 at 10:23 am
I was under the impression even non-medaling athletes received a stipend to compensate them for all their hard week. I mean it’s nearly impossible to hold down a steady job in the year leading up to the olympics because you’re training ALL the time.
9.
plonkee
August 26th, 2008 at 7:34 am
The British do not spend money on falsifying age records. We don’t do well in sports that require young people. However you’ve severely underestimated the amount that we spend on committee pay, and neglected to mention the money spent on building complete replicas of Olympic cycling venues to maximise the chances of winning a gold medal.
10.
shergymrag
October 15th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
“Pay for college! Yeah right. She is more likely to get a full ride scholarship. What school in their right mind wouldn’t give a scholarship to a gold medal olympian.”
Shawn can’t get a scholarship because she is pro. She will make more than enough in endorsements to pay for college though.
11.
Sayre Group
November 15th, 2008 at 7:09 pm
I remember during the olympics when they were telling about countries paying athletes from other countries to compete and the UAE was paying something like 250k per athlete which was by far the highest, I think Russia and Britain were paying something like 20k an athlete.
12.
Alex
June 30th, 2009 at 8:16 am
That’s really weird. Even the badminton player representing Malaysia is receiving around a quarter of million for getting silver from Bei Jing.
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July 26th, 2010 at 3:48 am
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August 7th, 2010 at 6:21 am
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World of Troll Dolls
September 28th, 2010 at 5:35 pm
Interesting article! Athletes have to remember that they can only compete for so long. They need to plan for the rest of their life too.;
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Troll Dolls
September 28th, 2010 at 5:36 pm
Oops, forget to mention that I love Shaun Johnson. She is from my home state of Iowa!!
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