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Being an Olympic athlete is an incredible struggle, both physically and financially. Olympians must train for years and years before they can even compete on an Olympic level. Many young athletes, and their families, can easily spend several hundred thousand dollars before they even get to compete in the Olympic games.
An Olympic bobsled athlete can have costs of $50,000 a year in expenses, plus $20,000 in equipment. A skeleton racer (similar to the luge) can face expenses of almost $15,000 a year.
The struggle for U.S. athletes, as compared to an Olympian from China for example, is that there is no government funding for athletes; they must cover the costs themselves. Most of the costs are training costs, travel costs and just expenses so everything can revolve around the training and preparation. Although some sponsorship and corporate support from the United States Olympic Committee exists, it's only available after athletes (and their families) have experienced years of hard work and sacrifice.
First, before sport or training related costs, Olympic athletes need to live. They need to rent an apartment or pay their mortgage. They have electric bills, cable bills, and cell phone bills like the rest of us. If they have a family, then you have all the family-support responsibilities, both financial and emotional. If they are young, someone needs to feed them, clothe them and keep a roof over their heads.
If they're young, the expenses start to add up in training, travel, food, specialized trainers and equipment. Another factor in the cost to be an Olympian of course is the sport itself. Equipment to be a track runner may consist of sneakers. Equipment to be a skeet shooter or cyclist may be far more expensive.
Travel is a very expensive part of the costs to be an Olympic athlete. For an Olympic athlete to travel to the Beijing Games, with his family, might cost $15,000 for airfare, hotel, food and other costs. And there are multiple other international events the athlete must attend to qualify on an International level.
For the Winter Olympics, it can be even more expensive. A pair of speed skating boots costs $2,000. Most athletes spend about $15,000 a year for training and equipment, multiply that by the ten years it takes to get to the games and it's a lot of money. There is sponsorship, but as in other Olympic sports, it's only available once you make the Olympic team.
Olympic athletes share a drive to win and a drive to succeed. The rules have changed and now professional athletes, like NBA stars, can compete in the Games which greatly equalizes the field, as it compares to government subsidized programs in other countries, which the US does not have.
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