Each Olympics there has been a little more talk about the absolutely ridiculous way the finances of the Olympics are managed. This is an obscene money making machine with no accountability at all.
They prey on athletes who are desperate for Olympic glory as most of their sports are hardly heard from between Olympics.
Somebody needs to lead an athletes' strike about 10 days before the games begin. All participants should receive $50,000 each and maybe top 20 $25,000 more and medalist $100,000 gold $75000 silver and $50,000 bronze (let's say $60,000 for bronze as I'm from Canada). If not, the athletes refuse to compete. The IOC would find the money as they have more than that to lose. They might also reduce some of the obscure sports over the next 4 years.
The IOC considers itself a volunteer movement. The president receives an "allowance" of $250,000/yr and lives in a free villa in Switzerland. Of course Switzerland is where their head offices are so they don't have to disclose bank accounts.
They receive billions in TV rights (NBC paid $775 million for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, and $1.23 billion for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. NBC also paid $963 million for the rights to the 2018 Winter Olympics (to be held in Pyeongchang, South Korea) and $1.45 billion for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan)( Taken from Wikipedia,) hundreds of millions in sponsorships (Mastercard, Nike, Nisson, etc), and tens of millions from ticket sales. Their costs are few: The host city/country puts up the facilities on promises that the money will come back in money spent in the city and future tourist dollars.
Athletes are the stars yet get nothing from the IOC. Their countries' associations pay for them to go there. The IOC also has Rule 40 - prohibiting private sponsors (the ones who support and pay athletes) from getting any advertising from the athletes at the Games. This hurts the athletes further because they do not even get the opportunity to pay their sponsors back during the only time (for most sports) when anyone is watching. If they could, these sponsors would be more willing to pay more to athletes.
According to one article, an average US pro athlete in Track and Field nets average income of $16,553 per year. At the Olympics, athletes are put up in dorm-like rooms, whereas the IOC officials stay in 5 star hotels with $450 - $900/day per diems.
The IOC does give some of its money to international sporting organizations, but they all seem to have their offices in Switzerland or as the IAAF do (in Monaco) where they don't have to disclose financial holdings.
Is it not time that Olympic athletes start looking out for themselves a little more and fight for the financial viability of the future athletes - especially as it pertains to the Olympics?