There is enough money for elite sports in Latvia (don’t get me wrong – it’s not about the sports system as a whole). When it comes to the financing of high-achieving sports, Latvia asserts itself as a world power. A few million from the national budget for Olympic basketball and hockey selection tournaments? In one stroke! A few hundred thousand for a volleyball tournament in the sands of Jūrmala? He got a little fat, but in the end he gave. Holding the Olympic competition on the Sigulda ice track? Yes, just tell us where to sign, then we’ll start thinking about where to get the money for it!
Cash prizes for achievements? In Latvia, they are among the five to ten most generous in the world every Olympiad.
What should be changed in the Olympics?
The column can be viewed from June 29 on Saturdays in Latvian Television’s sports news.
You will agree – quite a big contrast when compared with the indicators of Latvia’s economy and competitiveness in the European Union, not to mention the world map.
The athletes of the Latvian Olympic team are paid monthly salaries with all taxes. This was the model until the economic crisis of 2009, in the following 15 years the income was presented as benefits, but now the social cushion is left at the bottom again. As if it’s a small thing, but it’s worth highlighting – after studying the financing system of elite athletes of more than ten countries together with our colleagues, we didn’t find another precedent where the country’s athletes were paid official salaries for being in the elite Olympic athletes’ unit. Yes, in many places athletes are registered to work in internal affairs and defense structures, receiving wages and social guarantees in this way (in Latvia there are several dozen athletes who receive salaries both from the boiler of the Olympic unit and from power structures), but such a luxury as official salaries in the Olympic unit – In this respect, Latvia is among the leaders in Europe and beyond.
Flipping through the foreign media before the Paris Olympic Games, the harsh everyday life of Olympic athletes is being talked about in countless countries of the world like never before.
On almost every corner, athletes are promoting self-created crowdfunding campaigns, hoping that the public will throw in some money to properly prepare for the start of the quadrennial. The Norwegian Olympic Committee told Latvian Television in the spring that about half (!) of their Olympians live below the country’s poverty threshold. Norway also does not pay prize money for Olympic achievements. Decided not to go to work and do sports? Then do it at such a level and in a form of sport that you can support yourself – Norwegians, one of the richest countries in Europe, have calibrated their sports system with this kind of message.
Big investments in youth and popular sports, or in a moving nation, but very modest benefits for elite level athletes. Say, we created the conditions for you when you were a child – now you are grown up and you have to deal with it yourself. It is significant that a donation campaign was launched in Norway this year, in which the public can donate 8 euros with a tail to athletes of specific (less popular) sports to support their journey to Paris through one text message.
The USA pays its athletes $37,500 for an Olympic gold medal. In Latvia – more than 140,000 euros.
Of course, of course – the Americans have much more gold, someone will say. But the economic power of the US is also quite different, as is the cost of living. As “Al Jazeera” journalist Andy Hirschfeld emphasizes, in order to get a rental house in America, you need to win at least two Olympic gold medals, while the prize money for a bronze medalist (15,000 dollars) remains below the federal poverty threshold.
Most athletes from the local Olympic committee receive an average monthly allowance of a few hundred dollars (the best squeeze up to 4,000 dollars a month) and are forced to combine sports with working a basic job. As the American athletes explain in the interviews, it is not so easy to find a job because the athlete’s routine requires some flexibility in the work schedule, but not all employers are ready for such a compromise.
In slightly more lucrative sports, athletes are still helped by federations, but some only from the moment they have officially qualified for the Olympic Games, and not on the way to this goal. More than a quarter of American Olympians declared less than 15 thousand dollars in income from the competition, but 90% of Olympians’ preparation costs exceeded 21,000 dollars. In 2012, the mother of Olympic gymnastics champion Gabby Douglas declared bankruptcy, citing the large expenses for her daughter’s gymnastics training as the reason.
The problem is in the Olympic Games themselves. Their organizers, a private company based in Switzerland, generate billions in profit, but pay nothing to their most valuable asset – the athletes.
Not even for medals won. Leaving the calculations up to each member state. In addition, athletes are prohibited from showing their private supporters during the Olympics. Name an even more shameless example of human exploitation in the 21st century world!
Olympians are increasingly vocal about this injustice before each Olympic Games. The ice has finally moved, because the International Athletics Federation has decided to reward all the Olympic champions from its own funds. On the other hand, the International Boxing Association promises bonuses to all Olympic medal winners. Both the International Olympic Committee and other international federations are gnashing their teeth at these jumps, as a precedent has finally been set that can have an “unwanted” avalanche effect. Don’t give up, others will start wanting money for a job well done!
What can Latvian Olympians learn from all this? First, be grateful for what you have. The Latvian Olympic Association provides athletes with both salaries and funding for training expenses, and provides high-level sports medicine services. Against the general background of the world – it is very proud. Secondly, it would be advisable to put aside the bravado in the moments when you managed to leave the athletes of the big countries behind, because, very likely, qualifying and preparing for the Olympics was much harder and leaner for those poor people. We had to train in our free time from work and at our own expense. There are also such Olympians in Latvia, but few. And nowadays there are much fewer of them than 20 or 30 years ago, when one father sold a bull to send his son to the Olympics. The third aspect to think about all together,
isn’t it a bit wrong to divide the budget funds allocated to the Latvian sports system? Why does the state lack money for accredited professional orientation programs in children’s and youth sports, but there are millions for a few days of sports events?
Why do sports coaches work several jobs to make ends meet, but the Latvian Olympic team supports athletes who are unable to attract a single sponsor and gather even a few thousand followers on social networks? Why does Latvia’s youth sports system rely so much on parents’ wallets?
Latvia can be proud – our Olympians have not opened crowd funding campaigns on every corner and have not been pushed under the donation phone. But does the average young person who wants to play sports in Latvia have better conditions than their peers in Norway? The answer is in the title – this is the price of our Olympic medal…
