I was having a conversation today with someone who aspires to become a professional track athlete and I was trying to explain that doing track as a professional sport without a side job is going to be a tough slog because track is not a salaried sport like say playing in the NFL and you only earn money when you compete and do well on the circuit. I know of course that many of the top athletes have sizable endorsements deals that outweigh circuit earnings but does anyone know what athletes get paid for running at the various meets? Its funny for many pro sports you can go easily go online and find information like the top earners in the sport but not so for track. It would be nice to be able to see that for track & field - top earners - both with and without endorsement deals. But even for those athletes who can secure a shoe/apparel contract I suspect that the shoe companies may not be paying out as much money as they did in past years.