Golden Opportunity : U.S. Athletes Banking On Making Money Off Medals

The American free enterprise system is a major part of our society. Here, the profit motive is the engine that turns the country’s wheels. Provide a service, get paid.

In some families this translates to that quaint American civics lesson--paying a kid for grades. If Johnny brings home an A on his report card, he gets $5. That’s called a performance incentive.

It is really no different for the amateur athletes of the world, except that the incentive is considerably bigger. If he brings home a medal, Johnny Jock gets $50,000.

That won’t be lost on the athletes who win gold, silver or bronze medals next month in the Seoul Olympics. Athletes from many countries will be paid direct cash bonuses for winning medals.

Others will have been given financial support before the Games. U.S. track and field athletes are among these.

The Athletics Congress, which governs U.S. track and field, has established a program called Operation Seoul, through which 44 athletes who were deemed potential medalists were selected and given $1,400 a month for training expenses from last January through October.

The program is considered experimental, and TAC officials can’t say if they intend to continue it.

“We’ll evaluate it after Seoul,” said Pete Cava, a TAC spokesman. “To me, the thing was designed to get more medals. We won’t know if it works until then. I think it’s an excellent start.”

The program has had a few glitches, as might any first-time enterprise. Operation Seoul began with 26 athletes in January, as selected by a TAC committee. Naturally there was some grumbling from athletes who thought that they should have been included in the program.

TAC continued to add athletes to get to the final 44. The cost of the program is about $600,000.

Another common complaint was, “Why give money to people who already have so much of it?”

The program does give the appearance of helping the rich get richer. Big earners such as Mary Decker Slaney, Edwin Moses and Carl Lewis are part of the program.

These are athletes with lucrative shoe company contracts, who have some outside endorsement income and are paid five-figure appearance fees at meets.

Nancy Ditz of Woodside, Calif., who will run the marathon at Seoul and is on the TAC board of directors, thinks the program is a good idea that needs some fine-tuning. Ditz was not selected for Operation Seoul.

“My personal feeling is that it should have been need-based,” she said. “Quite honestly, it wouldn’t have included me if it had been. It wouldn’t have made that big of a difference to me, but it would have really helped some other athletes.”

Ditz pointed out that, for the first time, there was a prize money structure at the Olympic marathon trials. Ditz won $25,000 for placing second--another incentive.

“It does seem that some athletes who either don’t need the money or who didn’t have a chance of getting a medal were included,” Ditz said. “The fact that they gave money to Mary Decker Slaney to me is unbelieveable. Look at when they gave the money, December. Mary has been injured and she hadn’t run in two years.”

Marathon gold medalist Joan Benoit Samuelson is the only athlete who declined to be part of the program. Samuelson, who is careful about lending her name to anything, was reportedly displeased with a stipulation that allowed TAC to use photos or likenesses of athletes in the program for promotional purposes.

Of the 44 athletes who have been in the program, 28 actually made it to the Olympic team. Now, according to some athletes, TAC has promised that any athlete who wins a medal in Seoul but was not in the program will be given a lump sum of $14,000, to pay the athlete what he or she would have received in the Operation Seoul program.

“I know people will look at it as getting paid for winning a medal,” Ditz said. “But I think the intention is to say, ‘Sorry, we made a mistake in not putting you in the program in the first place.’ ”

Cava would not confirm that the offer of retroactive payments had been made, but several Olympic athletes said they have received the information through the mail on TAC letterheads.

The TAC program is neither unprecedented nor unique.

Sport Canada, which oversees all amateur sports in that country, has a program that pays elite athletes a monthly stipend.

The Japanese track and field federation last year established a grant system through which 13 Olympic hopefuls were identified and have been paid $2,400 a month. Ten other athletes were chosen to be paid $800 a month.

But far and away the most generous givers are the South Koreans.

As hosts of the Games, the South Koreans hope to make a good impression. To that end, Olympic organizers have cleaned up the Han River, mounted an anti-smoking campaign and, in a bold move, officials have tried to break South Koreans of their habit of spitting on sidewalks.

But South Korean sports officials also want to impress on the fields of competition. They have certainly impressed their athletes by dangling huge financial incentives in front of them. Of all sports, the South Korean track and field federation will be the most generous, paying the equivalent of $140,000 to every South Korean gold medalist.

South Korean Olympic officials say that other federations will likely pay $100,000 bonuses to gold medalists.

In addition, successful South Korean athletes can look forward to lifetime pensions. Pensions are linked with placing in the Olympics, Asian and University Games and the World Championships. For example, an athlete who wins an Olympic gold medal will receive $822 a month.

Other nations that pay for medals:

--Hungary. Hungarian athletes who finish in the top six in Seoul will get cash awards. Winners of individual events will receive the equivalent of $10,000.

According to the official Hungarian news agency, the philosophy is, “Though the Olympic participants are striving for glory in the first place, the Hungarian sports management holds that financial rewards and other benefits will also stimulate performance.”

Also as part of the package, Hungarian athletes will be paid up to $1,000 of their bonuses in Seoul so they can take advantage of the discount shopping. They will pay lower customs duties when they bring their purchases back to Hungary.

--France. The French have projected a 15-medal payoff in Seoul, from what French officials are calling their strongest team ever. To help the athletes achieve that goal, the French National Olympic Committee announced a pay-per-medal program: About $31,000 for a gold, $16,000 for a silver and $11,000 for a bronze.

--China. The Chinese, who had a medal reward program at the 1984 Games, have upped the ante for Seoul. Chinese officials say that the rewards will be greater but will not disclose the amounts. The Chinese bonus structure in Los Angeles was $2,133 for a gold medal, $1,066 for a silver and $533 for a bronze.

--The Soviet Union and East Germany. In those countries, Olympic medalists are rewarded with hard-to-get apartments or perhaps cars or washing machines, goods considered better than cash and more difficult to come by.

Of course, many athletes who aren’t directly paid for medals will still earn income as a result of winning one. Boxers, for example, who turn professional after the Games can expect to earn far more money for having won an Olympic medal than they would have if they had climbed their way up through the amateur ranks without the stage the Olympics provide.

In track and field the same applies, with one other dimension. Although medal bonuses are outlawed in shoe company contracts, they certainly exist. In 1984, for instance, the going rate for a gold medal was $35,000.

Adjusting for inflation, athletes stand to make more than that at Seoul.