NEW YORK (AP) — The stakes for all these U.S. skiers, skaters, snowboarders and sliders over the next 100 days could not be more clear.
A chance for Olympic glory.
A chance to compete for a gold medal.
And this year, for the first time, a chance to make $100,000.
Thanks to a recent to the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Foundation, athletes who make the U.S. Olympic or Paralympic teams starting next year in Milan-Cortina will be eligible to receive a $100,000 award when they retire.
It’s a game-changing piece of news for Olympic athletes, most of whom toil in obscurity outside of the two weeks the lights go on at the Games, and many of whom live in or near poverty: According to the foundation, some 57% of U.S. athletes earn $50,000 or less a year.
“At the age of 25, 26, I definitely was like: ‘I can’t do this to (my family) anymore. I can’t continue living in my car. I have student loans. I have to get on with my life,’” said biathlete Deedra Irwin, who is now 33 and has made ends meet by everything from dog sitting to joining the Vermont National Guard.
Though Wednesday marked the 100-days-out point on the Olympic calendar, only a small slice of the approximately 225 Olympic and 65 Paralympic spots on Team USA in Italy have been locked up.
The majority of those spots will be earned based on athletes’ finishes in upcoming World Cup events being held across the globe over the next few months.
So, while many of these athletes have heard the stories about how the Olympics can change their lives — usually through sponsorships, speaking engagements and talk-show appearances that spring from inspiring performances — never before has the promise of cold hard cash been dangled quite like this.
“As an athlete, you don’t put into a 401K,” Paralympian Oksana Masters said. “We don’t have those traditional jobs of paying into that kind of stuff. It’s about time that we’ve done this.”
There are a few catches, mostly that the money will be divided into four payments and won’t go into bank accounts until 20 years after the athletes retire, or when they reach 45 — whichever comes later. (The math is interesting for snowboarder Nick Baumgartner, who will be 44 next year and hopes to extend his career through Salt Lake City in 2034.)
The grant also funds a $100,000 life insurance policy for a beneficiary.
Both the award and the insurance are accrued each time an athlete makes the Olympics, meaning, for instance, someone who makes it three times would receive $600,000 in total benefits.
“We’ve received other transformational gifts, but this has reflected a shift in how we’re able to holistically care for our athletes,” USOPF president Christine Walshe said.
The $100 million came from Ross Stevens, the founder and CEO of Stone Ridge Holdings Group, a finance firm that focuses on “nontraditional” investment options such as crypto and fine art.
It was the biggest single donation to the USOPF, which started operation in 2013 — the brainchild of former Olympic leader Peter Ueberroth, who helped turn the Olympics into a moneymaker, in part out of necessity because the U.S. government does not fund its Olympic athletes.
With most of the next decade’s TV and sponsorship dollars accounted for, the foundation will need to bankroll improvements in athlete benefits for the foreseeable future. Walshe said the charitable arm is projecting to account for 27% of the USOPC’s revenue this Olympic cycle, compared to 12% from 2021-24.
The foundation’s contributions are directed toward athlete-centered programs that focus on performance and innovation, health and wellness, and career placement and economic mobility. Never before has the economic mobility part looked as simple as this: Make the Olympics, get $100,000.
“The $100,000 definitely motivates all of us to make that team,” cross-country skier Gus Schumacher said. “Cross-country isn’t generally huge money, and $100,000, especially for the people that maybe are on the edge of the team, is going to be a lot.”
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