America
was built upon the idea that a man’s attitude and work ethic should determine
his prosperity. So why do we as a Nation make the hardest working athletes at
the top of their respected sports compete in the Olympic Games for free? Patriotism
and the thrill of competition can’t but food on the table and sneakers on the
feet of athletes. American athletes deserve payment for their participation in
the games.
Nick Symmonds, who is an accomplished two-mile runner,
has been offering up advertising space on his arms in the form of temporary tattoos
to raise money so he can train for London Olympics.(Escobedo) Symmonds’ story
is one that is all too familiar for athletes training for the games around the
country. They are expected to train and compete at the highest level but they
lack the funding to do so. Where is all the money from the American Broadcast
of the games? N.B.C has been advertising the games since the Patriots Super
bowl but athletes like Symmons have to resort to desperate measures like
selling advertising space on their body so they can train to compete on the
world stage of athleticism. Time magazine reported that the United States
Olympic Committee (a non-profit organization) churned out a healthy fifty-nine
million dollar profit. Even more shocking is how U.S.O.C executive Terry
Harper, whose position pays him over one-hundred grand a year, responded to the
situation “It’s not my problem”. (Escopedo) When it’s a person’s job to help
and organize the Americans to prevail in the 2012 London Games you would think
it’s an issue that Harper should care about. But then again the slave-owners in
the antebellum period probably didn’t believe that the injustice of slavery was
their problem either.
Many other developed countries competing in the 2012
Games are pioneering new strategies for funding their athletes. Australia is
one of those countries pioneering a new plan to divide the lump sum that the
country generates from T.V time, advertisements, and etc. into an annual
payment for the athletes while still placing incentives to win medals by
offering cash bonuses for medalists. (Magnay)According to “The Age”, an
Australian Newspaper, Germany developed a progressive but still somewhat
lacking plan for paying athletes. Cash bonuses (although still taxable) are
going to be awarded to athletes who place from first to eight place in any
event, with the highest bonus being given to gold medalists, an amount of about
twenty-thousand dollars, and the smallest bonus of two thousand dollars to
eighth-place finishers. Although the new plan put forth by the Germans comes up
short when factoring how much time athletes spend training throughout the four
years between games it is still certainly a step in the right direction, a step
in a direction that N.B.A star Dwayne Wade would greatly appreciate.
Earlier this month N.B.A stars Dwayne Wade and Ray Allen
publicly voiced their discontent over not receiving payment for their
participation in the Summer Games. (ESPN) Wade’s argument mostly consisted of
the simple fact that he is surrendering his summer vacation time, time that
should be spent relaxing, spending time with family, and preparing mentally and
physically for the coming season to compete for the United States in the
Olympics. Wade played brilliantly for the team in the 2008 games in Beijing
leading them to a gold medal but should players like Dwayne Wade have to risk
injuring their livelihood for free? U.S.A Today interviewed U.S.A Basketball
Chairman Jerry Colangelo on the subject and he believes that there is nothing
wrong with him and his other executives being paid while the ones doing the
labor aren’t. The best three reasons he could think of were "The
opportunity to represent your country is a privilege without anything further
said, that's No. 1," Colangelo said. "No. 2, the experience broadens
individuals in every regard and every respect because you experience things you
would not have under any other circumstance — the travel, the people you meet.
"Thirdly, the
brand. We will live in a global economy. All of our players have shoe contracts
and apparel contracts and they're little mini-business onto themselves and in
some cases, they're not mini-businesses, they're quite substantial.” He isn’t completely wrong in what he said but
he neglected the largest and possibly the most obvious issue. What happens to a
professional athlete if he or she sustains a career ending injury while they
are competing for the games? Imagine how much American Olympic teams would
suffer if a professional athlete like Dwayne Wade shattered his knee-cap in a
qualifying game against a country like Latvia. Professionals participating in
any sport at the game would certainly think twice before they sign up for the
2016 games. Of course the professionals do possess as much patriotism and desire
to compete as Americans but there is a major difference in what they risk
versus the women’s Kayaking team. The professionals support their families off
of their sport.
Americans participating in the Olympics deserve to be payed
based on the amount of money their respected events generate. Sorry Nick
Symmonds but Dwayne Wade and his teammates deserve more money than you but the
high grossing events like basketball should contribute their money into the
fund to pay all athletes. Meaning that the superstars still do take home the
most amount of money from the games but in proportion to what their sports
generate they take home less money than what athletes in less romantic sports
like the distance runners, pole-vaulters, synchronized swimmers, and etc. take
home so they can afford to train as well. Barack Obama said in his 2012 State
of the Union Address "As long as we
are joined in common purpose, as long as we maintain our common resolve, our
journey moves forward, and our future is hopeful, and the state of our Union
will always be strong." And I believe that the same idea can be used for
Athletes competing in the 2012 London Summer Olympics.
