USA Swimming’s athlete funding plan for the current Olympic quad calls for less athletes to get more money over the final two years leading up to the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
The general athlete funding criteria call for athletes to be a national team member, meaning they hold one of the nation’s top 6 times in an Olympic event. From there, athletes with a certain world rank receive a monthly stipend from USA Swimming of at least $3250, according to USA Swimming’s guidelines, which you can view here. That dollar amount is for postgraduate and professional swimmers, with high school athletes getting $1750 and college athletes getting $1000 during school months and $1750 over the summer, to abide by amateurism rules.
The current national team (chosen based off of times from September 2012-August 2013) is funded out to athletes ranked in the top 14 in the world. Those athletes get their stipend for the full year until August of 2014, provided they continue training and competing.
At the end of this coming August, the new funding criteria will kick in – they call for only athletes within the top 12 in the world to receive the funding for the 2014-2015 season (September 1, 2014-August 31, 2015). The same top 12 criteria is in place for the 2015-2016 season as well, before extending back out to the top 16 for the 2016-2017 season.
The funding plan calls for athletes to receive “no less than $3250 a month.” Though the athlete funding criteria don’t specifically spell it out, USA Swimming confirmed to us that it plans to increase the funding to individual athletes over the final two years of the Olympic quad as the athlete ranks funded slide down from top 14 to top 12.
“As we approach the Olympic Games, funding the top 12 athletes in the world helps us focus on those who are ‘all-in’ and most likely to compete for medals at the Games,” said USA Swimming Director of Communications & PR Scott Leightman. “As a result, we’ve increased allocations to those who qualify for the subsidy.”
Then after 2016, the funding will broaden back out, with athletes ranked top 16 in the world receiving funding.
Yes, yes, of course everyone wants money but you know what… Money doesn’t grow on trees, even for a huge corporation or organization. They have more expenses than just this – in fact, tons of expenses! I think being reasonable with money is always the best way to go. I know some people begin to expect these sorts of things or feel entitled but you know what…entitlement is just wrong. If someone wants to pay you for something, that’s their decision. Amazing swimmers are hard to come by and natural supply and demand will determine these sorts of things.. Just give us a route to donate to them! I think tons of people would donate money to the national team…
I am not sure I am understanding this completely. So are the payments to Junior National Team members being cut completely unless they are Top 12 in the World? I find this entire thing just sad. If they want to give more money to top 12, then just give it. I find it hard to believe they can’t come up with the money they are cutting from some to give to the top 12 from some other fund. They should not be cutting out what people have come to expect and rely on for their training just to give a few more people extra funds. Just Ridiculous.
So let me get this straight. A swimmer can be on the National team by being the sixth fastest in the country in an Olympic event, be number 13 in the world, and not get any funding from USA Swimming. That is not only outrageous, its pitiful. These athletes bust their humps to make the National team and in my opinion, should be compensated for it. No National team member should be without funds for training, period, as our great leader would say. ( Did I say great? ).
Some post-grad/pro swimmers do not take the stipend because they don’t want to fulfill the stipulations per USA Swimming for those that do take it. Such as attending Grand Prix meets.
I think more USA swimmers are funded than any other ‘Olympic sport’. I think $39k is more than adequate to train with….they can still get prize money, sponsors, and all their meet travel expenses paid by USA swimming. Most of these swimmers probably make more than their coaches….do they pay their coaches and or club anything? I would guess not.
I really don’t know why they are doing this. How does someone ranked top 12 have more of a chance than someone ranked top-14. For shorter distances, the difference in time could really be negligible. Why not just keep it at top 14 so that more athletes can be given funding?
Nice. The officials at USA Swimming have to live with themselves, but I don’t know how. Funny they can come up with huge salaries for themselves and pay inappropriate legal fees, but can’t reasonably fund the top 6 athletes in each event. I pay dues for my kids to swim, and am appalled at where the money goes. Membership and dues continue to climb. Stop pulling the rug out from these kids. They are the best swimmers we have, and those paying the dues want them supported, and not just those who are top 12 in the world.
Tons of companies hire athletes, like pro-swimmers, to work for them and they are really good about working around their training schedule.