Medal shy team Nigeria grumbles over $100 a day allowance

[Oba]

That's far from the full picture.

For starters, this is ONLY FUNDING FROM THE NATIONAL LOTTERY on the World Class Performance Programme.

Through just this source of funding, there is an additional support package available to a medal contender of around £55,000 per annum, while the MINIMUM available for an athlete at development stage is £30,000!

The £27,000 you quoted (actually £27,737) is just Athlete Personal Award, it is not a reflection of all the financial support AND EARNINGS that a sportsman makes. The APA is capped at £27,737 but maximum athlete basic earnings, excluding endorsements, to qualify for support, are set at £65,163, plus an additional allowed maximum of £37,426 for sponsorships, endorsements, etc, making a total of £102,589, beyond which the Athlete's Personal Award is then reduced commensuratly.

http://www.uksport.gov.uk/pages/how-the-funding-works/

Bottomline is that a British Olympian, in the 4 year period between Olympics, can expect up to $355,000 in training support, plus an additional up to $175,000 in Athlete Personal Award, if total earnings of the athlete does not exceed approximately $660,000 in that 4 year period. And the support isn't just for the year before Olympics or the 4 years before the next Olympics, it is continuous throughout the career of the talent, right from the development stage, before he/she becomes a medal prospect, to AFTER the games.

Meanwhile, in Nigeria, a total of $220,000 was available as funding for ALL Nigerian athletes at the Olympics, with money going only to 11 selected athletes, each getting 5 quarterly payments of $4,000 in the build up to London 2012. These 11 athletes were the ones supposed to win Nigeria 11 gold medals in London.

[Chingo Bling]

Selective stats!

An additional support package available to a medal contender of around £55,000 per annum, while the MINIMUM for an athlete at development stage is £30,000!

The £27,000 you quoted is just Athlete Personal Award, it is not a reflection of all the financial support AND EARNINGS that a sportsman makes. The APA is capped at £27,000 but maximum athlete earnings are set at £65,163, plus an additional allowed maximum of £37,426 for sponsorships, endorsements, etc, making a total of £102,589, beyond which the Athlete's Personal Award is then reduced commensuratly.

http://www.uksport.gov.uk/pages/how-the-funding-works/

Bros,
You are being selective, the TOTAL package includes cost of travel, training etc. We are talking of "Personal allowances" here. As far as sponsorship is concerned, that is not relevant to the $100 a day allowance issue here. e.g. Blessing earns more from her endorsement deal with First Bank than many UK Athletes earn from their respective sponsors.

[Oba]

Selective stats!

An additional support package available to a medal contender of around £55,000 per annum, while the MINIMUM for an athlete at development stage is £30,000!

The £27,000 you quoted is just Athlete Personal Award, it is not a reflection of all the financial support AND EARNINGS that a sportsman makes. The APA is capped at £27,000 but maximum athlete earnings are set at £65,163, plus an additional allowed maximum of £37,426 for sponsorships, endorsements, etc, making a total of £102,589, beyond which the Athlete's Personal Award is then reduced commensuratly.

http://www.uksport.gov.uk/pages/how-the-funding-works/

Bros,
You are being selective, the TOTAL package includes cost of travel, training etc. We are talking of "Personal allowances" here. As far as sponsorship is concerned, that is not relevant to the $100 a day allowance issue here. e.g. Blessing earns more from her endorsement deal with First Bank than many UK Athletes earn from their respective sponsors.

Chingo, go back and read my post. I hadn't finished typing it when I accidentally posted it. I've completed what I had to say.

[Cristao II]

They are not paying for accommodation or feeding or bills. So what exactly are they spending the money on? I think they need to wake up.

Do you realise that this may be what they do for a living? The hangers on are living large while the donkeys are sweating their arses. Nigeria confirms its a joke.

At these olympics - having 100 dollars per day as allowance is a lot!! Perhaps they wanted to go shopping and they realised that it is not enough?

[realtrouble]

In London? You'd be in poverty trying to live on $20 a day. $100 a day? As professional 'medal-challenging' athletes, they should be getting paid more than that, all year round. That's only $36,500 a year. And to make matters worse, they only get this for a few days every 4 years. Disappointing.

Oh please the only thing expensive in London is transportation. 100 dollars a day is reasonable if transportation and housing is provided. So you are saying a person living off 1500 pounds a month with transportation and housing is living in poverty. Heck the last time I lived with my uncle in London, my daily allowance was like 10 pounds, and I survived. Those athletes should be thankful they are at the Olympics, they should focus on the competition instead of worrying on how to protest. You people have NHS and you are complaining.

This is the point being made: Pay and allowances go beyond sustaining an athlete during those few days of the games. Elite, world class athletes spend almost all of their young lives, training and building up to that moment on the podium. Those Chinese swimmers, divers, and gymnasts, started training when they were 5, and they've been putting over 40 hours a week for up to 15 years now. Athletes in many countries are 'full-time' staff of their federations, who cater for them 24/7 year after year on end to develop them and keep them happy and focused. Go to stratford city Westfield on a normal day, and you'd see the athletes buying stuff for themselves, friends, and family at John Lewis. Even if the $100 a day was extended year-round, that's still less than $37,000. In UK, you have graduates, fresh out of Uni making more than that AFTER TAX. Talk less of someone who carries a country's hopes and dreams on his or her shoulders. I am sorry, but it does your morale no good when you see your rivals being well treated and you don't get the same. Basic Management Psychology tells you that while high pay is not a motivating factor, low pay (or percieved low pay) is a strong DEMOTIVATING factor. In elite sports, where the difference between first and last is a heart beat, you cannot afford demotivation.

If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys for workers.

At the end of the day, when you consider all things, the real surprise of these games would be if Nigeria got a single bronze medal.

Bros,
Even team GB athletes dont earn up to £100 a day from allowances!
The maximum a BAND A (Olympic gold medalist) gets is 27k a year (they take care of coaching costs, training, travelling, etc)

Most UK Olympic sportsmen and women get a basic salary, sporting endorsement and national lottery funding.