The Real Reason Elite Athletes Are Underpaid: There Are Too Many Of Them

The Real Reason Elite Athletes Are Underpaid: There Are Too Many Of Them

Recently, athletes have come out saying that USATF needs to pay the athletes more.

Dec 2, 2016 by Gordon Mack
The Real Reason Elite Athletes Are Underpaid: There Are Too Many Of Them
USATF CEO Max Siegel gave a rundown on Thursday of the compensation USATF paid directly to the athletes in 2016.

1) $2.6 million via prize money at USATF events
2) $1.8 million via the "elite athlete distribution plan" for those who made the Olympic team
3) $1.9 million via the "USATF tier program" based on World/U.S. rank
4) $0.6 million via travel payments
5) $4.4 million via non-USATF properties (International prize money, USOC, USATF Foundation grants)
6) $2.6 million via training center programs, health insurance, workshops, other tier programs

In total about $14 million was paid to the athletes.

Here's why $14 million is great:


A majority of this money went to athletes who were top three in their events. Twenty-eight athletes earned over $100K, 111 athletes earned over $38K, and 179 athletes earned over $25K. These 179 athletes all are top three caliber athletes. They had stellar 2016 seasons which opened up a revenue stream into their pockets via prize money and money from USATF. A large majority of these athlete most likely also have sponsorship deals, thus $25K-$100K on top of their sponsorship salary is pretty good.


Here's why $14 million is not great:


If you aren't top three in your event, you are shit out of luck. USATF's compensation to athletes is designed to reward the best of the best. In USATF's eyes simply qualifying for the Olympic Trials or making an event final doesn't deserve large compensation. USATF's ultimate goal is about winning world medals, so its revenue distribution plan is designed to reward the potential medalists not the potential U.S. finalists.


Here's why USATF won't give the same financial love to a top 8 athlete:


Basically, our sport is too big to be supported fully by a governing body. USATF is not just one sport; it is a combination of running, jumping, and throwing events. In total there will be 129 different USATF champions crowned in 2016. Of those 129 events, 43 are Olympic qualifiers. Forty-two are other world championship qualifiers (IAAF/IAU/WMRA), and the remaining 44 are U.S.-only championships.

01 Indoor M 60m IAAF Event
02 Indoor W 60m IAAF Event
03 Indoor M 400m IAAF Event
04 Indoor W 400m IAAF Event
05 Indoor M 800m IAAF Event
06 Indoor W 800m IAAF Event
07 Indoor M 1500m IAAF Event
08 Indoor W 1500m IAAF Event
09 Indoor M 3000m IAAF Event
10 Indoor W 3000m IAAF Event
11 Indoor M 60m Hurdles IAAF Event
12 Indoor W 60m Hurdles IAAF Event
13 Indoor M High Jump IAAF Event
14 Indoor W High Jump IAAF Event
15 Indoor M Pole Vault IAAF Event
16 Indoor W Pole Vault IAAF Event
17 Indoor M Long Jump IAAF Event
18 Indoor W Long Jump IAAF Event
19 Indoor M Triple Jump IAAF Event
20 Indoor W Triple Jump IAAF Event
21 Indoor M Shot Put IAAF Event
22 Indoor W Shot Put IAAF Event
23 Indoor M Weight Throw IAAF Event
24 Indoor W Weight Throw IAAF Event
25 Indoor M Heptathlon IAAF Event
26 Indoor W Pentathlon IAAF Event
27 Outdoor M 100m Olympic Event
28 Outdoor W 100m Olympic Event
29 Outdoor M 200m Olympic Event
30 Outdoor W 200m Olympic Event
31 Outdoor M 400m Olympic Event
32 Outdoor W 400m Olympic Event
33 Outdoor M 800m Olympic Event
34 Outdoor W 800m Olympic Event
35 Outdoor M 1500m Olympic Event
36 Outdoor W 1500m Olympic Event
37 Outdoor M 5000m Olympic Event
38 Outdoor W 5000m Olympic Event
39 Outdoor M 10000m Olympic Event
40 Outdoor W 10000m Olympic Event
41 Outdoor M 110m Hurdles Olympic Event
42 Outdoor W 100m Hurdles Olympic Event
43 Outdoor M 400m Hurdles Olympic Event
44 Outdoor W 400m Hurdles Olympic Event
45 Outdoor M 3000m Steeplechase Olympic Event
46 Outdoor W 3000m Steeplechase Olympic Event
47 Outdoor M High Jump Olympic Event
48 Outdoor W High Jump Olympic Event
49 Outdoor M Pole Vault Olympic Event
50 Outdoor W Pole Vault Olympic Event
51 Outdoor M Long Jump Olympic Event
52 Outdoor W Long Jump Olympic Event
53 Outdoor M Triple Jump Olympic Event
54 Outdoor W Triple Jump Olympic Event
55 Outdoor M Shot Put Olympic Event
56 Outdoor W Shot Put Olympic Event
57 Outdoor M Discus Throw Olympic Event
58 Outdoor W Discus Throw Olympic Event
59 Outdoor M Hammer Throw Olympic Event
60 Outdoor W Hammer Throw Olympic Event
61 Outdoor M Javelin Throw Olympic Event
62 Outdoor W Javelin Throw Olympic Event
63 Outdoor M Decathlon Olympic Event
64 Outdoor W Heptathlon Olympic Event
65 Road M 1 Mile N/A
66 Road W 1 Mile N/A
67 Road M 5km N/A
68 Road W 5km N/A
69 Road W 10km N/A
70 Road M 15km N/A
71 Road W 15km N/A
72 Road M 10 Mile N/A
73 Road W 10 Mile N/A
74 Road M 20km N/A
75 Road W 20km N/A
76 Road M Half Marathon IAAF Event
77 Road W Half Marathon IAAF Event
78 Road M 25km N/A
79 Road W 25km N/A
80 Road M Marathon Olympic Event
81 Road W Marathon Olympic Event
82 XC M 10km IAAF Event
83 XC W 10km IAAF Event
84 Trail M Half Marathon N/A
85 Trail W Half Marathon N/A
86 Trail M 30km N/A
87 Trail W 30km N/A
88 Trail M Marathon N/A
89 Trail W Marathon N/A
90 Trail M 50km N/A
91 Trail W 50km N/A
92 Trail M 50 Mile IAU Event
93 Trail W 50 Mile IAU Event
94 Trail M 100km N/A
95 Trail W 100km N/A
96 Trail M 100 Mile N/A
97 Trail W 100 Mile N/A
98 Ultra M 50km IAU Event
99 Ultra W 50km IAU Event
100 Ultra M 50 Mile N/A
101 Ultra W 50 Mile N/A
102 Ultra M 100km IAU Event
103 Ultra W 100km IAU Event
104 Ultra M 24 Hour IAU Event
105 Ultra W 24 Hour IAU Event
106 Mountain M 6.6 Mile WMRA Event
107 Mountain W 6.6 Mile WMRA Event
108 Race Walk M 1600m N/A
109 Race Walk W 1600m N/A
110 Race Walk M 3000m N/A
111 Race Walk W 3000m N/A
112 Race Walk M 5000m N/A
113 Race Walk W 5000m N/A
114 Race Walk M 5km N/A
115 Race Walk W 5km N/A
116 Race Walk M 10km IAAF Event
117 Race Walk W 10km IAAF Event
118 Race Walk M 1 Hour N/A
119 Race Walk W 1 Hour N/A
120 Race Walk M 15km N/A
121 Race Walk W 15km N/A
122 Race Walk M 20km Olympic Event
123 Race Walk W 20km Olympic Event
124 Race Walk M 30km N/A
125 Race Walk W 30km N/A
126 Race Walk M 40km N/A
127 Race Walk W 40km N/A
128 Race Walk M 50km Olympic Event
129 Race Walk W 50km N/A

When Phoebe Wright wrote on FloTrack about a lack of funding after her sixth-place Olympic Trials finish, Wright's performances at first glance seemed to put her in a very small elite few. But when you extrapolate top eight finishes to all of the USATF championship events, Wright is one of 800-plus, not even including elite injured athletes.

How many elite athletes are in our sport?
415 athletes can claim they have a top eight U.S. mark in an IAAF event in 2016
701 athletes can claim they have a top eight finish in a USATF Championship event
817 athletes can claim they have a top eight U.S. mark in an IAAF event in 2016 -or- a top eight finish in a USATF Championship event.
1,332 athletes qualified and competed at the 2016 Olympic Trials

In Summary…
800-plus athletes can arguably say they are one of the best in their event due to their top eight in the nation credentials.
1,300-plus athletes can say they were in the running to qualify for Team USA.

So how much would it cost to support these elite athletes?

Let's use an even 1,000 as the core number of elite USATF athletes based on the numbers listed above.

To send an athlete to the USATF annual meeting: $400 ($200 airfare + $200 hotel)
$400 x 1000 athletes = $400,000

To give an athlete a yearly travel budget: $3,200 ($400 x 8 trips)
$3,200 x 1000 athletes = $3.2 Million

To give an athlete a base salary: $25,000
$25,000 x 1000 athletes = $25 Million

To give current athlete prize money
$2.6 million (What USATF gave in 2016)

That's $31.2 million total, more than the approximately $20-million annual value of USATF's deal with Nike. 

Obviously, all of these estimates are not exact but just serve to show the scale of cost of compensating all of the elite athletes in a sport of this size. But these are just the estimated costs of direct money to the elite athletes. USATF has many other expenses, including meet production costs, event rights, staffing, athlete programs, plus all of the youth, junior, masters, and Paralympic events that it is obligated to run/support.

Right now, USATF does a good job at supporting the top three athletes in each event. The problem comes when you try to support the top eight. The reason USATF doesn't support a larger portion of the athletes is mostly that there are too many top eight caliber athletes to support equitably. The only way non-top three athletes will start getting paid is more money in the sports or fewer events.