US medal payments and NCAA?

[sce]

I believe that the USOC pays athlete who medal? Something like $25,000 for Gold etc. Can athletes accept this money and still do NCAA?

 

[HoldThePhone]

I've always been curious about this as well!

 

[Terry]

They can keep the bonuses they get for Olympic medals and still maintain their NCAA eligibility

 

[gymyogimom]

They have a subsection that explains it. This article is helpful

http://sports-law.blogspot.com/2012/08/why-missy-franklin-retains-her-ncaa.html

 

[HoldThePhone]

That article just further proves to me how messed up some NCAA rules are.

 

[dancemom]

I'm definitely confused. So how much does an Olympic medalist get? Anything above the Olympic bonus from FIG?

 

[txgymfan]

They just changed the rule so now foreign NCAA students can keep the bonuses from their countries too. Some foreign bonuses are less than the US but some are considerably more.

 

[Iwannabemargo]

Interesting, I see you are inheriting / have inherited some of our gymnast into your college programme. Danushia Francis competes for UCLA and I believe Ruby Harold is going to Louisiana State. Both of them are sure to have received funding for their gymnastics, so how does that work ? Our top athletes are centrally funded by British Sport and I know Danushia modelled for Milano leotards, I would assume for some consideration.

 

[Jenny]

they don't get paid for modelling for leotards

 

[Faith]

i'm fairly sure there are overseas athletes that have worked and then gone on to ncaa.

Don't know how it works.

 

[Iwannabemargo]

they don't get paid for modelling for leotards

ah, kind of team commitment thing is it ? Milano provide the team leos in return for modelling

 

[Jenny]

no I think they just do it for the kudos. Girls having a go at modelling and that.

 

[Dahlia]

Unless they sign with an agent, getting paid to model leos doesn't violate the ncaa amateur guidelines. http://www.ncaa.org/amateurism

Atheletes are not prohibited from being employed and earning money. It's being paid for their performance in sports.

 

[Iwannabemargo]

so the gold medal bonus doesn't count then ?

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/...-olympics-money-athletes-medals-a7195011.html

 

[txgymfan]

No, until recently it counted for foreign NCAA students but the rule recently changed. So Collegiate Olympians can keep their medal bonuses ( and pay taxes on them). Katie Ledecky will get a nice check.

 

[Iwannabemargo]

sooooo, you can't, as a gymnast, make money from gymnastics, unless you make money from gymnastics from the state

 

[txgymfan]

Margo, basically, yes.


Here is an article in the USA Today about it.

Ohio State's Kyle Snyder due $250,000 bonus after wrestling gold in Rio

http://usat.ly/2bMzHvw

They can also keep bonuses from their sport federations for world championships, etc.

Only Maddie from the US team is still NCAA eligible. Laurie went pro during the games and already has a deal with Crest.

There is also a rumor that MyKayla is going pro instead of going to Utah.

 

[Iwannabemargo]

so, going pro means basically advertising stuff, Like "Hi I'm Laurie and my pearly whites are due to using crest!"

The whole pro thing is an anathema to us as we don't have college sports etc here. I assumed going pro meant doing gym, not trading on your name and wondered where the money in that was, except possibly cirque, I couldn't see how that would happen.

 

[Rapunzel]

Is the college route that you get tuition paid for if you represent that college at that sport? Or is there more to it than that? A long time ago one of my coaches (not gymnastics!) suggested I go to uni in the US and look at scholarships, my parents were dead against it (as we didn't have tuition fees in the UK back then), but it feels like a missed opportunity.
Laurie does make a good poster girl for toothpaste with her smile.

 

[wandrewsjr]

Is the college route that you get tuition paid for if you represent that college at that sport? Or is there more to it than that? A long time ago one of my coaches (not gymnastics!) suggested I go to uni in the US and look at scholarships, my parents were dead against it (as we didn't have tuition fees in the UK back then), but it feels like a missed opportunity.
Laurie does make a good poster girl for toothpaste with her smile.

Yes, NCAA athletes in the US that get full scholarships for their sport get all expenses involved with going to University covered - tuition, room, meals, books - some even get stipends to help with things like travel expenses.(as in personal travel expenses to go to from school, not team travel expenses which would by completely covered by the university)