A national survey carried out in one of the major countries of the Olympic movement reveals it without taking any gloves off: the life of a high-level athlete is not a golden existence. It is often even the opposite.
Unveiled this Wednesday August 30, the study was carried out in Australia. But it is not hazardous to think that its conclusions would be quite similar anywhere else on the planet.
At the helm, the Australian Sports Foundation (ASF). The non-profit organization surveyed 2.304 Australian athletes from around sixty sports online, 604 of whom said they participated in international competitions.
According to the results, almost half of these elite athletes – aged over 18 – earn less than 23.000 Australian dollars per year. Converted, this represents around 13.700 euros at current prices, or only a little more than 1.000 euros per month.
The same survey reveals that more than 40% of the athletes questioned admit that their financial situation has deteriorated over the last twelve months. This is mainly due to the increase in accommodation and travel costs to attend competitions.
Comment from Patrick Walker, Director General of the ASF: “ The public would be very surprised to discover that most of our athletes at the Olympic, Paralympic and Commonwealth Games, which are highly publicized every two or four years, are going through a very, very difficult situation. They earn less than the poverty line, certainly less than the minimum wage, they depend on their parents and often work part-time jobs"
That's it for the numbers. Shocking. But the prospects are even more worrying. Two in three elite Australian athletes, aged 18 to 34, say they have considered giving up their sport. One in two athletes preparing for the 2026 Commonwealth Games, initially allocated to the Australian state of Victoria, have seriously thought about giving up and moving on. In the longer term, almost half (43%) admitted that they were no longer sure of continuing their sporting career, in such a financial situation, until the Brisbane Games in 2032.
Finally, another lesson from the survey, the mental health of Australian athletes displays serious gray areas. More than 40% of respondents admitted to having seen their morale falter and depression knocking at their door over the last twelve months.
Former swimmer Bronte Campbell, double Olympic champion in the 4x100m (Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020), now retired from sports, explains: “ When you win an Olympic gold medal, you get a medal bonus, which is not, as someone once asked me, a million dollars. It's much less than that. But trying to support yourself between the Olympics and between periods of great performance is another matter. There have been years in my career where, if I hadn't had success the year before, I don't know how I would have made ends meet."
Conclusion of the ASF: Australia risks losing entire sections of its sporting elite, in Olympic disciplines, by the Brisbane 2032 Games. Unless, insists the organization, it quickly finds a new model of financing of high-level sport.
Which ? According to the analyzes of the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC), the solution cannot come only from public authorities. Its managing director, Matt Carroll, explained last spring that two billion Australian dollars (1,2 billion euros) were currently missing to finance sport in the run-up to the Brisbane 2032 Games.
Federal Sports Minister Anika Wells announced last month the creation of a $20 million fund to help athletes prepare for and compete in qualifying events for the 2024 Paris Games. The gesture is not insignificant . But it is already considered very insufficient to resolve the basic problem, the financial precariousness of part of the elite.
For the ASF, the solution could come from a path that is still too little explored by sports authorities: sponsorship. According to Patrick Walker, the arts world manages to fill its coffers with a jackpot of around $350 million per year by soliciting patrons. Sport is far from it. “ Our income from sponsorship has increased, he admits. But they represented only 80 million dollars last year. In our country, sport should be on par with the arts for patronage, as both areas are equally important to communities and the well-being of the nation."
