Courtousy of VINCOSPORT.COM:
When last year’s Forbes list of the world’s highest paid sports people came out, the entrant at number 45 was met with interest in the track and field world. The fortieth richest sportsman in the world in 2013, with an estimated $24.2m fortune, was a certain Usain Bolt.
Amazingly, the double Olympic and world champion and current world-record holder is the only athlete on a list dominated by footballers, NFL superstars, basketball players and tennis stars.
Top of the list is Tiger Woods, who despite his spectacular fall from grace a few years ago, can still command $65m (£39m) in sponsorship deals. But what’s really striking is Bolt’s actual earnings from competing. This figure comes in at a mere $0.2 (£119,642). The rest of his riches come from endorsements.
You would have thought someone of Bolt’s talent and pulling-power would be able to earn a huge amount from winnings as he’s one of the biggest sports stars on the planet. However, what’s apparent is if it wasn’t for sponsorship deals, he would not even appear on the list.
American footballer Aaron Rogers has an eye-watering salary of $43m (£25.7m) per year and fellow NFL star Drew Brees isn’t far behind with his whopping $40m (£23.9m) annual pay packet.
So if the world’s fastest man can’t compete with other international sports stars on the financial front, where does that leave other athletes who need to train full-time to remain successful? Most of them, in the UK at least, have to rely on lottery funding and a small amount of sponsorship or celebrity endorsement.
Funding comes from UK Sport and is allocated between a variety of sports, and individual athletes are given varying amounts of money depending on which band they sit.
Band A is a medallist at Olympic or World Championship level, Band B is a top eight finisher and Band C is classed as likely to be a world championship level performer but not necessarily a medallist. And there’s also lower levels of funding to athletes expected to make relay squads, and a potential Olympic funding programme for athletes who it’s hoped will make an impact in the next few years.
Paralympic athletes have the same funding structure.
According to UK Sport’s website, those on Band A will receive around £27,737 a year in funding which drops to £13,869 for Band C. So anyone on that level will more than likely have to take some form of employment alongside their funding to exist as an athlete.
All athletes are allowed to apply for an Athlete Personal Award (APA) which goes directly towards living and sporting costs. This is a discretionary amount decided by UK Sport and there’s no guarantee anyone who applies will receive it. The total amount for any athlete must not exceed £65,163.
If an athlete earns more than this from sponsorship, appearance money and prizes, it will be deducted from their funding and APA. Coaching is not paid for out of funding in most cases.
Many athletes have been dropped from the funding programme or not been deemed good enough to get a place on it. Jenny Meadows has recently talked of the “physical and mental hardship” she faced when the £26,000 she previously got from lottery funding was taken away, and the battle she now has to train and compete full-time.
Others have taken drastic and unusual methods to secure enough money to pursue their Olympic dreams. Sprinter James Ellington auctioned himself on eBay in 2011 after serious injury meant his funding was withdrawn. The winning bid of £32,500 turned out to be a hoax but his plight was picked up by King of Shaves who offered him a sponsorship deal to pay for his Olympic training.
And only last year, Liverpool Harrier Jonny Mellor struck up a deal with a local solicitor where he will be given the sum of any legal fees received from certain products. As part of the arrangement, Mellor recommends the products to potential clients and develops business contacts for the solicitor.
Overseas, the picture’s not much better for athletes either. In the USA, track and field stars aren’t paid for their chosen career but many of them have contracts with businesses, such as shoe or clothing manufacturers, who may pay the athlete as a brand ambassador if they bring home a championship medal. Prizes for medals are paid by the US Olympic Committee, at $25,000 for gold, $15,000 for silver and $10,000 bronze. And it’s all taxable.
British athletes do not get any monetary reward for bringing home a medal. Other countries, like Russia, are more generous and pay around $113,200 plus bonuses for a gold medal but many don’t have funding levels in place for their athletes.
And winning a medal – even gold – is no guarantee of keeping funding or endorsements, as Olympic long jump champion Greg Rutherford found out after London 2012.
Rutherford was part of “Super Saturday” where Mo Farah and Jess Ennis also won gold for Britain but, despite this, was shocked when Nike decided to offer him a new kit deal on vastly reduced terms. He had been with Nike since 2005 and rather than sign the deal decided to face life without a kit sponsor. Rutherford also told the media he had lost several other affiliation deals after winning gold.
In a similar situation, Sally Pearson – who also won gold at London 2012 – lost sponsors after the games and told the media the majority of her income is now from Diamond League appearance money, where she is promoted as one of the main attractions alongside Bolt when she takes part.
In stark contrast, Farah and Ennis’s situations have improved since the Olympics as Farah has signed with Virgin alongside Bolt, switched to Nike from Adidas and been paid a rumoured £450,000 to run half of last year’s London Marathon. Ennis has deals with Santander, Olay, Jaguar, Pruhealth and Adidas. She also released her autobiography in 2013.
The prize money on offer at major championships doesn’t compare favourably to other sports either. In Moscow last year, winners received $60,000 (approximately £36,000) falling to $4000 (£2,400) for eighth place. A world record would earn a further $100,000 (£59,821).
In comparison Andy Murray will have helped himself to £1.6m for winning Wimbledon last year and other players were paid £12,000 just for qualifying. Prize money levels are similar in golf, with the top prize at last year’s US Masters coming in at $1.3m (£777,675).
Finishing in lowly 25th place would pay out a comparable amount to what an athlete get for winning an event at the Moscow World Championships $63,800 (£38,165).
It’s clear athletes don’t earn anywhere near as much as other sportsmen and very few will get rich from it, even if they are lucky enough to win medals, break world records and secure lucrative sponsorships like Farah and Ennis. The vast majority rely on funding to exist, and can only hope to make finals and be paid appearance money to boost their income.
Even the sport’s most bankable star only made it onto the rich list thanks to the sponsorships and endorsements that come with being the world’s fastest man and his charismatic personality, not his actual exploits on the track.
No wonder most athletes have other careers to fall back on. They certainly need it.