From 2013 to 2016, the IOC earned an average of $1.74 billion a year, but athletes only got 4.1 percent of it.
"It's really frustrating and ashamed when your physical therapist knows your situation and doesn't charge you for it. I couldn't hold on any longer, and I wanted to stop and rest, get back to my family and friends, hug them, and say thank you out loud to them because they've been what I've driven all these years. ”
That's what Greece's Theodoros Iakovidis, who finished just 11th in the Men's 96 kg weightlifting event at the Tokyo Olympics, tearfully announced his retirement after the game.
Born in 1991, Odolos competed in the Rio Olympics four years ago, won the 2018 Mediterranean Games and won the silver medal at the 2020 International Weightlifting Federation World Cup. The main reason for his retirement is not the physical load, but the poverty that cannot be sustained.
One of Europe's top weightlifters, O'Doros says he has earned little else in his sporting career. Now only a monthly subsidy of 200 euros (about 1800 yuan) from the Greek Weightlifting Federation is available to prepare for the competition. That's only about a quarter of the Greek minimum wage of 758 euros. Sometimes, he couldn't even pay for car fuel and had to walk to practice.
Greek weightlifter Odolos cried in a post-match interview and announced his retirement Photo: Video screenshot
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="7" > more than half of the Olympians financially strapped? </h1>
O'Doros's collapse cry uncovered the fig leaf of vulnerability: the financial woes of professional athletes.
In daily life, sports stars often appear in advertisements and even variety shows. Many believe that these professionals are not only worth millions, but at least middle-class standards — the Los Angeles-based celebrity profile website "Famous Birthdays" has also assessed that Odoros has a net worth of about $1.5 million.
Odolos, who is thought to be sitting on millions of assets, is actually struggling at the poverty line. O'Doros also revealed that he is not the only athlete facing a dilemma, in Greece, only a very small number of athletes have the country's top resources, and many ordinary athletes need financial help.
Last February, USA Today reported that global athletes, which aims to protect athletes' rights, received feedback from a survey of 491 athletes from six continents — about 200 of whom claimed to have competed in the Olympic or Paralympic Games, and the rest, who were also at the national or international elite level, preparing for the Tokyo Olympics.
The pre-pandemic survey of elite athletes in 48 countries showed that 58 percent said their financial situation was unstable.
After many events are cancelled due to the pandemic, athletes' financial situation may be worse.
Ugandan weightlifter Sechitoreko appeared at Narita Airport in Japan to prepare to return home after a brief disappearance. Image: CFP
On the eve of the Tokyo Olympics, Julius Ssekitoleko, a Weightlifter in Uganda, Africa, dropped a note and fled from a Hotel in Japan. He said life at home was too difficult and he wanted to stay in Japan to work. The contestant was found and sent back to China, or faced jail time.
Due to the lack of living, during the Olympic preparation, in order to achieve the body shape of an athlete, he had to borrow money from people to buy protein powder, and he had been in arrears for 4 months of rent before going abroad. Learning that he was missing in Japan, the landlord threw his 5-month-pregnant wife out of the house.
Not just the Tokyo Olympics, but almost every Olympics has a narrative of poverty among the contestants. The most famous bridge section of the last Olympic Games was that in the pre-race preparation stage, more than 10 low-income American athletes launched online crowdfunding to pay for the living expenses of training and seek financial support for new equipment; Kalmoe, who won the bronze medal in the 2012 London Olympics quadruple oar rowing and won the American Rowing Champion of the Year in 2014 and 2015, relied on an average monthly income of $800 to save money to prepare for the Rio Olympics; in 2013, Less than seven months before the start of the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, Emily Scott, a 24-year-old American speed skater, was so embarrassed by her training schedule and no other part-time income that she applied to the government for free food stamps.
Earlier, in 2002, the son of Chusovitina, a famous Uzbek gymnast, contracted leukemia. A world championship gold medal means a prize of 3,000 euros, and she returned to the field to raise money for her son's treatment. Four years later, for better training conditions and the medical conditions of her children, Chusovkina became a German citizen and represented the German gymnastics team at the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games. After her son recovered from illness, in 2013, Chusovykina applied to restore uzbekistan citizenship and fight for her country.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="19" > not everyone wins a medal</h1>
Poverty plagues many Olympians because most of the elite foreign athletes rely on sponsorship and business endorsements for their livelihoods, plus medal winnings.
At the last Olympics, India awarded Rs 10 million (about 870,000 yuan) to each gold medalist, Rs 120,000 to each silver medalist and Rs 80,000 to each bronze medalist – which could change the lives of some of them. Athletes working in the Indian railway system receive medals, as well as additional cash and promotions.
In Singapore, Olympic gold medalists could get $730,000; in the Philippines, they have $200,000; in Malaysia, they have more than $230,000 in prize money, but the bronze medal is only $24,000.
Countries with higher levels of competition are less generous. The U.S. Olympic Committee awards gold medalists $37,500, silver medals $15,000 and bronze medals $10,000 — and those who win medals also pay 39 percent personal income tax. Australia's prize money is even lower, with gold, silver and bronze prizes of only $15,000, $11,000 and $7,000 respectively.
Of course, some poor countries may not pay bonuses to athletes at all.
On July 30, CNBA cited the IOC's list of olympic medals and prizes in many countries
Even if you get a medal, or even a gold medal, the income of athletes in different sports varies greatly.
Only in popular sports do star athletes have the opportunity to receive huge sponsorships. Even so, injuries or poor performance can have an impact on income. Olympians are well aware of the uneven contrast: Star athletes attract thousands of fans and sponsors, but the average athlete's life doesn't fare much.
At the same time, training for some elite programs is expensive: a fencer has more than $20,000 a year to pay; equestrianism is a program that requires a lot of money from the beginning.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="29" > the IOC's pot? </h1>
There is an argument that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) needs to take part of the blame for athletes' financial woes.
As the main organizer and promoter of the Olympic Games, the IOC has an amazing income during each Olympic Games. The Associated Press estimates that in addition to international sponsorship, domestic sponsorship in host countries, ticket revenue, and license revenue, this year's IOC earned $3 billion to $4 billion just by selling the television rights to the Tokyo Olympics, which may be the highest IOC revenue for the Olympic Games.
However, most of this wealth is not shared with athletes.
Officially, the IOC allocates 90 percent of its revenue to the Olympic Councils of all continents, national and regional Olympic committees, international sports organizations, and more. These institutions then dispose of the money, which is used to promote sports and the Olympic Movement, and ultimately only 10% remains as the day-to-day management expenses of the IOC.
Athletes don't have much money to get their hands on directly. In April last year, the "Global Athletes" organization released the "Olympic Commercialization and Athletes' Compensation" report, saying that from 2013 to 2016, among many sports organizations and leagues, the International Olympic Committee ranked eighth with an average annual revenue of $1.74 billion, from which athletes only got 4.1%, while Major League Baseball and Premier League athletes received 50.1% and 60.3% of the total revenue, respectively.
More athletes even said they did not receive "appropriate financial compensation" from the IOC or the organizations that sent them to the Olympics and other major events.
The income of Olympians is linked to their performance, and the picture shows the gold medal of the Tokyo Olympic Games. Image: CFP
In addition, the IOC has prevented Olympians from seeking independent commercial sponsorship.
Article 40, paragraph 3, of the Olympic Charter provides that "no athlete, coach, trainer or official participating in the Olympic Games shall have his or her name, photographs or athletic performance used for advertising purposes during the Olympic Games, unless approved by the Executive Board of the International Olympic Committee".
This regulation, which is intended to prevent the Olympic Games from being over-commercialized, actually reinforces the IOC's arbitrage moat, which has been complained about by many athletes.
If they are not sponsors of the Olympic Games, brands that sign individually with Olympians will receive complaints even if they express encouragement and congratulations to their athletes on social media.
In 2012, U.S. sprinter Sanya Richards-Ross, mid-distance runner Nick Symmonds and other Nike-sponsored Olympians launched the #WeDemandChange campaign on Twitter to protest the IOC's sponsorship rules.
Four years later, at rio 2016, the rules were slightly relaxed, with non-Olympic sponsors being able to sponsor athletes, but they couldn't use any Olympic-related words on social media, including "Rio," "gold," "silver," "bronze," "medal," "medal, and victory."
During the Tokyo Olympics, non-Olympic sponsors cannot use the Olympic Rings logo. Photo: U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee
But this is not enough. In the face of opposition, by 2020, Article 40 of the Olympic Charter will be officially changed to "Athletes, team staff and other team staff participating in the Olympic Games may use their names, photographs or sports events for advertising during the Olympic Games in accordance with the principles determined by the IOC".
At the opening of the Tokyo Olympics, the rules were further relaxed, and on social media, athletes could post seven messages of thanks to their individually signed sponsors during the Games, and sponsors were allowed to reply with a message congratulating athletes. However, the interaction still can't use Olympic-related terms – including "Tokyo 2020" and the Olympic Rings logo.
Of course, the root cause of olympian poverty goes far beyond being imprisoned by IOC rules. Athletes' financial woes span a wide range of issues, including training allowances, cost of living, insurance and post-Olympic employment opportunities.
Assuming that an individual is not properly managed financially, even an Olympic medalist may be in a desperate situation in his future life. At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, American athlete Ronda Rousey won the bronze medal in judo, but a few months after returning home, he was forced to sell his car on the website for more than $20,000 because he could not afford to pay the rent. To make ends meet, she had to join the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).
In August 2018, former U.S. female judo athlete Ronda Rusi won the U.S. Pro Wrestling Championship. Image: CFP
Even more tragic is another Olympic medalist, Debi Thomas. She won a bronze medal at the 1988 Winter Olympics, becoming the first African-American in the United States to win a figure skating medal. He also graduated from Stanford, a prestigious American university, and later earned a medical degree from Northwestern University and became a plastic surgeon. Now that her doctor's license has expired, Thomas, who has filed for bankruptcy, lives with her fiancé in a buggy trailer and doesn't even know where to look for her skates and Olympic medals.