US Olympians will now receive $200k each thanks to a $100 million donation by Ross Stevens

why $100k after they die? Wtf?

why not just give them the money? why treat US Olympians like children?

Bizarro!!

It's a very nice bonus for most athletes, but weird that it's two deferred payments.

What amount will athletes get after taxes?

Is there a cost of living increase for athletes if it goes beyond 2032?

most olympians retire by the time they're 30. If they wanted to split up the payments in a way that makes sense, $100k at 30 and then $100k at 40 makes sense

I'm gonna take that $100k when I die and party like it's 1999!

Geez, these comments lack common sense, and common decency to be thankful for a massive donation.

The deferments are so the money will last longer (they'll invest the trust) - it's 100 million, not a bottomless money pot.

To help those who are bad at math: There were 594 summer olympians in 2024. 100M/200k is 500. Poof, money gone if you don't build a plan around it.

Folks are joking. Imagine how excited Michael Jordan and LeBron James would be to get their $50million salaries when they die.

As Yogi Berra would say "If they pay me when I die, I'll hardly have time to spend it."

yeah but don't forget that one big incentive someone really rich has in donating money is for the positive attention it brings them. Also when you have all of these caveats and strings attached, it just makes you come across as controlling

"I'll give you $100k but you first have to kill 100 puppies with you bare hands. What?! Beggars can't be choosers!"

So it's basically a $100k lump sum pension and $100k life insurance policy. At least that's one way to look at it.

Its basically a retirement fund. Comparing getting a free $200K to killing puppies is bizarre. Why are people so cynical, not everything is some negative conspiracy.

3 words in and already the first spelling mistake.

It's a way of making the payout sound much larger than it actually is.

$100,000 payed out 20 years from now has a present-day value of about $30,000 assuming a 6% investment return.

A $100,000 life insurance policy payed out when you die - which is about 60 years away for your average Olympian - is probably worth less than $5,000 today.

No one's getting all that excited about a $35,000 bonus for Olympians, but $200,000? That sounds life-changing!

curious what we really mean by "starting money" and "funded through 2032" given the reward is for everyone who makes the team -- and all deferred.

i'll use an example to show how long you'd wait and how the rules defeat the point. what happened with tori bowie was heartbreaking for me. she ran in 2016 olympics. age 45 would have been 2035. 20 years would have been 2036. she would get it in 2036. she obviously needed money but wouldn't have been even halfway through her "20 years."

her death beneficiary would have gotten the insurance payout first.

Each eligible athlete getting $100,000 20 or more years down the road another $100,000 upon death -- let's guess this is 30 years post the initial payment.

Now the $100,000,000 has 20 plus years to grow before any payouts and them another 30 or so to the final payments.

Delaying the $100k makes sense because it gives the pool of money a chance to grow and potentially do more good for athletes. It also pushes the payment out to a date where there is more uncertainty around income for the athlete.

As for the insurance, it is a very inexpensive way to provide a benefit to athletes that they almost certainly don't have right now. Hopefully every Olympic athlete lives to the ripe old age of 100, but for the few that tragedy strikes the $100k tax free will be a welcome benefit to their families. Regarding this benefit, from a financial sense the worst case scenario is that you live too long and the present value of the death benefit was low when you received it...

Also...why are people complaining about this?

part of the idea of here is surely to reward high performers who took financial risks and struggled, only to reach the promised land. you then don't reward them in the promised land, at the time they are struggling, but 20+ years later. that's weird.

let me put it this way. did you have a "ramen era" in college? what if someone said, i will pay this class' student loan balance -- but in 10 years. you see where this doesn't fix my immediate ramen issue? and is so far away i can't use this to cement my life now, i basically have to treat it like an inheritance way off in the future. by which point the olympics is long gone and i either figured out normal adult financial life or not. and endured decades of that outcome.

does mr. crypto bro give out broker bonuses for this year's sales -- payable in 2045?

i think our colleague running the present vs. future value numbers has a decent guess. and to pile on to his comment, it's not just that the seed money may be less than we think if it's being invested to get a return to eventually be worth the $100,000. it's given inflation and such, that $100,000 will be worth a fraction of current buying power.

like if you're going to play with their emotions, it should be $100,000 as of when you make it, then put in some sort of interest or return investment, where that 20 years or so gets the time value of money. in which case, tech bro is paying just the $100,000 "per" to get it started, and the investment return atop that takes care of itself. but he has to fully fund the rewards up front.

but i agree, this probably ends up closer to he invests a fraction of the $100,000 and then projects to get to that number later. then announces he's giving $100,000 per.

US Olympians mostly come from white upper class families with generational wealth. The Olympics are a celebration of rich people who can do hobbies instead of a hard job. They have a safety net.

Better to donate the money to those who actually need it..... What a joke.

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and if you want to help with olympian retirement do this.