On average, athletes must come up with nearly $12,000 a year to supplement their funding.
Eli Dershwitz poses for a portrait during team USA Fencing media day at New York Athletic Club on May 21, 2024, in New York. PARIS — The guy lugging an overstuffed bag onto the New York subway, looking hurried, maybe a little tired, is a three-time Olympian.
Gymnast Simone Biles and sprinter Noah Lyles might be wealthy from their Olympic victories, but they are exceptions. Like many American athletes, Dershwitz cannot subsist on the stipends and bonuses he receives from USA Fencing and the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee. He coaches five hours a day — on top of training — to pay the bills.
“It goes to the fundamentals of what the Olympic Games mean to our country,” says Carrie Potter, a lecturer in sport finance at Rice University. “The way the United States approached it was to say let’s keep politics out of sports.” Other support includes tuition assistance, health insurance and a program that has helped more than 800 athletes get NIL deals worth an average of $3,000 a year. All of this puts the U.S. well ahead of poorer nations.
All of this leads to a common dilemma for Olympians when they hit their mid- to late 20s: Should they keep competing or walk away and get on with their lives? The Tim Morehouse Fencing Club — founded by an Olympic silver medalist — offered to let him coach part-time instead. The money paled in comparison to what some of his Harvard classmates were making in the real world, but his girlfriend worked in finance, so they could afford an apartment in Queens.
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