IS USAIN BOLT THE WORLD'S HIGHEST PAID HOURLY ATHLETE?

Maybe if he all he did was the race and didn't train for it at all.

Moes Tavern wrote:

If you take Bolt's average time of 9.80 and divide that into an hour, it comes to 367 times. Muliply that by the reported $250,000 he gets per meet, that comes to over $91,000,000 on an hourly rate!!

What other professional athletes can boast such an "hourly" rate? Of course, he takes a pay cut when he competes in the 200 and cuts that in half. No wonder he doesn't want to move up to the 400 where at 44 seconds he would be slumming it at only $20 million per for his efforts. Who would want that?

I believe, unfortunately for your argument that he occasionally warms up and cools down.

He's not paid to warm up, only to race.

Puma pays him for what he accomplishes from his training.

Maurice Bolt wrote:

He's not paid to warm up, only to race.

Puma pays him for what he accomplishes from his training.

This is an absurd argument. He doesn't race well without a warmup, ergo warmup is part of his job.

What about a kicker in the NFL? He actually is only moving from the time of the snap to when his foot hits the ball. Maybe 2"? Some kickers get paid quite a bit...

I'd be interested in seeing what the top athletes get paid per competition regardless of the length of the competition. So Tiger Woods, Lebron James, Usain Bolt, etc... per competition.

Wendell Gee wrote:

Maurice Bolt wrote:

He's not paid to warm up, only to race.

Puma pays him for what he accomplishes from his training.

This is an absurd argument. He doesn't race well without a warmup, ergo warmup is part of his job.

Who paying him to warm up? No one. Who's paying to see him warm up? No one. The meet director cares only about those 10 seconds.

Mauice Bolt wrote:

Who paying him to warm up? No one. Who's paying to see him warm up? No one. The meet director cares only about those 10 seconds.

Do you think if he didn't do warmups he would still be earning the same fees on a regular basis?

Well thank you Moe for having me piss away 30 minutes trying to disprove your math. My bad. Interesting thought.

So when Halie Geb ran 27:02 for 10k and won the $1 million it only came to chump change at a rate of $2.2 million hourly rate? He should be ashamed for working so cheap.

Well thank you Moe for having me piss away 30 minutes trying to disprove your math. My bad. Interesting thought.

So when Halie Geb ran 27:02 for 10k and won the $1 million it only came to chump change at a rate of $2.2 million hourly rate? He should be ashamed for working so cheap.

Mauice Bolt wrote:

Who paying him to warm up? No one. Who's paying to see him warm up? No one. The meet director cares only about those 10 seconds.

Not relevant at all. Are you on crack? do you think Bolt teleports to these meets? Do you think it matters what the director cares about? The only thing relevant in this equation is what takes up BOLTS TIME, not what the meet director cares about. You get paid to SHOW UP and run. That part that says show up is kinda important, and very time consuming.

He has to take the time to

1) Travel to the country he's competing

2) Travel to where he's competing

3) Warm up

4) do press conference

5) and yes he does race for 9.8 seconds.

Mrr82 wrote:

Not relevant at all. Are you on crack? do you think Bolt teleports to these meets? Do you think it matters what the director cares about? The only thing relevant in this equation is what takes up BOLTS TIME, not what the meet director cares about. You get paid to SHOW UP and run. That part that says show up is kinda important, and very time consuming.

Most of us spend time getting to work in the morning, but I don't think that many of us would include the drive in to be a part of what we are paid for doing. I'd say that you have to consider anything that is explicitly stated in the contract to be part of his paid time. He's certainly required to race and he's probably required to talk to the press in most cases.

I wouldn't consider things like travel time to be part of his hourly pay because he will be paid the same regardless of how much time he spends traveling or warming up. If Bolt randomly happened to be hanging out in Zurich before the meet for some reason unrelated to running, he wouldn't be paid less because he didn't have to travel from Jamaica.

Mauice Bolt wrote:

Who paying him to warm up? No one. Who's paying to see him warm up? No one. The meet director cares only about those 10 seconds.

Actually, they certainly ARE paying to see/have him warm-up/down. Why? Imagine if he just ran fast, and then immediately disappeared into the tunnel without any lightning bolt poses, not autographs, no clowning, NONE of the bolt "personnae" ? He wouldn't be worth so much. The fans love all that other stuff.

I tend to agree with your logic, but I can see both sides of the argument. The reason that I agree with you is that the amount that they decide to pay him is based upon the expectation that he will do some exciting/interesting/humorous things during the meet outside of the race itself. Even if it is not stated in his contract that "you will do a lightning bolt pose after your win," he is paid more because he probably will do something like that.

The other side of the argument would be that he still gets paid the same for this meet if he doesn't do anything cool other than run a fast race. If he doesn't show up and race, he doesn't get paid. If he doesn't talk to the media and his contract says that he's supposed to, his pay is probably docked. If he finishes the race and calmly walks off without striking a pose or any such thing, he still gets paid the same amount. It might affect future earnings, but at least for the competition in question he gets the full pay check.

Some of you guys are making this waaaay to serious. If fans are paying to see him warm up, then why don't they have bleachers in the tunnels or on the practice fields next to the stadiums?

Then why don't those of you who are counting the practice session back home not include his sleeping time and eating time? Certainly they are all inclusive with his training.

How many of you run? You're not paid for it, but a few like Bolt who are paid are paid for the performance. Clear and simple and Mr. Bolt takes less than 10 seconds to do his job. Quarterback X who plays 16 games for $5 mil a year would make $312,500 per game. Again, Bolt's "game" only takes 10 sec.

Taking all the fun out of this post.

lewis hamilton is the highest paid sportsman now

Sprinters kick distance ass wrote:

lewis hamilton is the highest paid sportsman now

Wrong, but your are forgiven. Only because he was named after a track guy Carl Lewis and his girlfriend is that smokin' hot chick from the Pussycat Dolls.

Johnny wrote:

What about a kicker in the NFL? He actually is only moving from the time of the snap to when his foot hits the ball. Maybe 2"? Some kickers get paid quite a bit...

Technically he's only getting paid for the fraction of a second that his foot is in contact with the ball. So in the illogical universe of the OP, kickers almost certainly make the most.

Bolt is not paid hourly. He works in the ROWE (results only work environment) business model.