For many US athletes, the road to the Olympics is paved with debt

investmentnews.com:

While the members of Team USA get to enjoy their fair share of pride, praise and prestige at this year’s Paris Olympics, it’s a costly journey for many who have to take on substantial debt and finance their own training in pursuit of excellence.

That’s the stark reality offered up by a recent Wall Street Journal article, which profiled multiple Olympian hopefuls who made extreme financial sacrifices to go for the gold.

Among the athletes showcased was Anita Alvarez, a member of the US artistic swimming team, who had to take on multiple jobs to fund her ambitions. Aside from performing routines for weddings and music videos, coaching youth teams, and working at a retail store, she took a $10,000 gig doing underwater stunts in the 2022 film “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.”

“There are definitely times when I’m feeling that [financial] pressure, which isn’t great while you’re training at the highest level,” Alvarez told the Journal.

While high-profile athletes like basketball players and gymnast Simone Biles can get big paychecks through endorsements, most athletes face a much more challenging financial journey. A report commissioned by Congress and released in March revealed steep financial hurdles, with 26.5 percent of surveyed athletes reporting individual incomes under $15,000 a year.

Rulon Gardner, known for his gold-medal win in Greco-Roman wrestling in 2000, became a cautionary tale illustrating the challenges for retiring athletes. While his Olympic prize money was enough to clear the $70,000 debt he’d piled up while training, he still had to file for bankruptcy in 2012 after losing investments in real estate and a failed gym venture.

“I put so many travel and training expenses on credit cards,” Gardner said to the