The Enhanced Games Was A Success! I.O.C President Kirsty Coventry Isn’t Tone-Deaf!

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Clickbait done. ‘Olympian pay’ article in my meandering style. Let’s do this.

So what recently has shone a light on the poor state of athlete pay in Olympic sports? Besides your daily refusal to check your bank account and the cost-fear of needing to replenish your supplements.

First up? The Flop Games, I mean, Enhanced Games that finally graced our screens. After a long period of anxiety from sports fans, excitement from drugs fans and relative indifference from my mum- the Enhancies passed with fewer honest records than a British athlete’s APA income assessment.

Shortly after this, I.O.C President Kirsty Coventry continued a long tradition of senior executive tone-deafness by informing us that she ‘doesn’t believe Olympians should be paid’. (Don’t mention the $100k she was paid by deceased despot Robert Mugabe for Olympic medals she won in 2008. Allegedly cash in briefcases, which usually screams legitimacy.)

Cue Olympians making, frankly, wonderful statements on the subject. See Greg Rutherford’s post for an excellent roundup.

Prez Kirsty did state a follow-up statement stating she should’ve stated her statement was stating about ‘prize money’, which made everyone calm down and agree with her.

Lol.

Many pointed out the unchanging reality of the billions the International Olympic Committee (I.O.C.) generates, what it actually pays out for, and the fact that Rule 40 continues to restrict athletes making any money off their own name and likeness anyway!

Lots of money for those important executives, actively little for the athletes that make the Olympics happen. I say ‘little’ for some sort of balance because there’s ‘Solidarity Funding’ and that. Something I didn’t qualify for once upon a time because I'm only a brakeman.

One solution-based comment from Olympic monster Cam McEvoy pointed out the maths on a $10k appearance fee for every athlete, as well as prize money riches for those at the tippy top, could still amount to only around 1.5% of the I.O.C’s quadrennial revenue of 12 billion.

Obviously we don’t know the exact ins and outs of the I.O.C’s accounts but it’s a pretty compelling argument given what they’re handing off to executives each year.

Which got me thinking, I should probably research a little further than Instagram. So I did. Here’s snippets from a little ESPN article that made me laugh/cry.

Previous I.O.C Prez ‘Big Tommy’ Bach earned:

‘a salary-like payment -- or “indemnity” in Olympic language -- of 275,000 euros ($317,000), according to its annual report Friday.’

Apparently he was ‘only’ paid that sum because:

The IOC has classified Bach, 71, as a volunteer on a full-time executive mission who “should not have to finance activities related to his function from his personal savings.”

And:

Bach’s annual payment was decided by the IOC’s ethics commission on the stated principle “the president should not financially benefit from his position”.

So, athletes can suffer financially for their pursuit of Olympic glory but not the execs?

Absolutely fair. I’m not sure what first-class flights and five-star hotels cost because my wife has set Chrome to block me from looking at them, but I imagine they’re expensive.

Also totally fine and not hilarious that the I.O.C’s ethics commission decided pay of hundreds of thousands of dollars a year was ‘not financially benefitting’ anyone. Oh and not to mention El Presidente’s housing allowance. Which again I’m sure is of no benefit at all.

It ties back into the Enhanced Games. While most people recognise that ‘event’ is essentially a marketing gimmick encouraging people to buy its wares, you can’t deny the remuneration on offer. Sub-elite performances getting elite pay? The question of humanity, morals and values of fair competition hold less weight in a modern age where cost of living is way up, the sacrifices of Olympic endeavour are made to feel less worthy and the job market for athletes transitioning out of sport can be fraught.

I know retired multiple Olympians struggling to get athlete placement jobs for restrictions like not having an academic degree. They’re having to do silly shit like fake it as a comedian/writer and pray they can blag a living.

Oh wait, that’s me.

So yeah, do you totally begrudge a male 10.8s or female 11.2s sprinter (whether they took PEDs or not, cos some didn’t) endorsing the doped circus for a massive payday? I thought I would, but since getting a mortgage in the U.K’s South-East, I’m infinitely less judgemental.

Would you have done it then Greg?!

No, I wouldn’t.

And not because I’m the reincarnation of Pope Gregory the Great whom I was apparently named after. (Delighted to be named after an historical Catholic official, thanks mum). I actually learned my lack of money-motivation in a roundabout way while chasing the new creative dream.

Once upon a time I wanted to be a London firefighter.

I considered trying again when I retire. Good hours, physical job, helping communities, hose down aggy protestors (maybe not that) - what’s not to love? I wavered on it because I wasn’t sure the trainee basic pay was enough to cover my current fiscal responsibilities. I thought it was around £26k (it isn’t, I had just done no research, like my writing.)

However, still armed with that salaried ignorance I saw an AI auto-generated response stating BBC-staffed writers generally started on pay of around £26k and immediately thought, full employment as a screenwriter?! Sign me up!

What that boring story showed me, and I hope shows you, is that without even thinking about it, I had no issue taking a lower salary for doing something I truly loved. No offence LFB.

See what I’m getting at? As many of us will attest, we don’t need Kirsty and her mates to part with all of their precious millions, we just think it’s fair that athletes get a slightly larger slice of the pay pie given none of it would run, swim or row without us.

Make that happen, and perhaps athletes won’t agonise over making undignified decisions to take part in exploitation of a different kind by different billionaires.

In the words of my hero John Oliver, ‘so, what can we do about it?’

Perhaps Rutherford and others are right, maybe it’s time for an Olympic Athlete’s Union? Maybe it’s time former athletes used their voices more strongly. We definitely have no shortage of well-spoken, high-profile people capable of fighting the good fight: see Rutherford, McEvoy, Sally Pearson et al.

Maybe we sit with this moment and ponder on our values and what exactly we’re competing for. I’ve spoken about this when I fell short of an Olympic medal. Was my entire career journey not worth it? The friendships? The experiences? I think that’s what El Jefe K-Dog Coventry was indicating with her clumsy statement about not financially recognising us.

Although I can’t sit here as an athlete that sacrificed his financial future during unfunded years and complain I was hard done by. In the words of that bloke from Ricky Gervais’ After Life: ‘My choice!’

More than ever, our eyes are open. We have choice. A few myopic and uncharitable people have pointed out an entitlement to athletes who choose to do sport and demand money for it. The simple pushback is most sportspeople’s pay is dictated by the revenue its industry creates. In American sports it’s relatively common to see a structure of 50% revenue share between leagues and athletes.

If nothing else, this rhetoric around Olympic athlete pay shuts down the discussion instead of seeding a nuanced debate about making it better.

The reason athletes are even considering the Enhanced Games isn't because they're greedy. It's because Olympic sport has left too many athletes financially vulnerable.

There has to be fertile middle ground where athletes might not be made millionaires by the revenue they generate, but at least share in some of it so they can live, save and not find themselves destitute by the end of their careers.

Where they’re not forced to make morally dubious decisions to compete in an event to market banned substances.

And where they don’t have to be gaslighted and pontificated to by millionaires about the glory of sport and the stadiums they get to compete in, all the while hearing those self-same people are raking in the big bucks off our backs.