Olympics: "Amateur" athletes

[Hasbro]

Even if athletes don't make enough at their sport to earn a living, plenty of them get some money for competing.

 

[GlenngarryGlencross]

From what I understand Team USA athletes are paid a salary/stipend by their respective federations (i.e. USA hockey) for training and receive bonuses for medaling. However, many of the athletes do seek sponsorships or work full/part-time jobs on top of their training. So in this context they could be both amateur, in the sense that they still may have to work to support themselves, and professional, being paid to train, at the same time. Of course some of the more famous athletes will go on to sign endorsement deals and so on (Ohno, Phelps, Vonn, etc.) and I would imagine a number of the athletes compete in different non-Olympic tournaments for cash prizes.

I'm not sure how it works for every other nation, nor am I sure the level of compensation each USA federation offers their athletes. Plus, you could have athletes that are already wealthy that seek training regiments on their own dime.

 

[LionsHeart]

I had the same reaction when I found out the truth about bangbus.

 

[TheCH*]

The only truly amateur athletes in the Olympics are the ones who participate in amateur sports. Like curling, just as an example. But if there was ever a curling league that paid enough to make a living, these people would be the ones in it. The amateur's and the pro's both have the most important thing in common - that is they are the best in the world at their given sport.

 

[JVR]

A huge number of German athletes are "Sportsoldaten" (Army athletes).

http://www.bundeswehr.de/portal/a/b...1256EF4002AED30/W27D3KDU145INFODE/content.jsp

A lot also work as customs of police officers with special status. They can take time off for training and competitions.

I'm also pretty sure that quite a few of our Biathletes earn more money than some of our hockey players.