Our athletes get $350000.00 per year!!!

[fatfencer]

If you read the transcript from the Aichele interview it says our US team athletes get $350000.000 a YEAR.

"Goes directly from the USOC to the athletes"

Up until now I've been under the impression that our athletes get the equivalent of welfare/foodstamps...

I dunno how many athletes we have but that certainly sounds like a lot of money.

Anyone care to share how this breaks out??? Even if thats 20 athletes that still $15k a year per athlete. Covers travel expenses and probably equipment too. Not too shabby.

FF

PS: Mo, care to shed any light on this?

[catwood1]

IIRC, it costs about 50k a year to try to make an olympic team between training and travel / competition.

I could be way off the mark though.

[ThatGuy]

I read somewhere that Meinhardt spent 80K on fencing in the last 12 months alone.

[Capt. Slo-mo]

Yep. Divide that amount by all the Olympic fencers, and the top three or four in each weapon that didn't make the Olys, and nobody got rich...or even got all their expenses covered.

[fatfencer]

not speculation.

Like how many fencers was that 350k divided by?

How much of Meinhardt's 80k expenditure(if he indeed spent that money) was defrayed by his percentage of that 350k??

I'd like to think that our athletes are being taken care of. If thats NOT the case then we need to know by how much so that we can lobby effectively for that to change.

Speculating does no one any good.

FF

[10000Fencers]

(Rough estimates) Fencing expenses for a season for a fencer traveling to the 8-12 world cups and 2-3 national tournaments neccessary to make a team plus equipment, lessons (yes, we pay for lessons still) and food equal about $30,000K

Add living expenses and food equals and you are talking about 50-60k budget each for an full-time international fencer.

We definitely lose money each season. 15K a year is not in the ballpark of covering what it costs to live and train.

When we are pitching for sponsorships we are estimating 50K for a season per fencer as a number we would need to not have to work and just train like the professionals in Europe and Asia.

[Grasshopper]

where's MY bailout!?

[RITFencing]

Anyone care to share how this breaks out??? Even if thats 20 athletes that still $15k a year per athlete. Covers travel expenses and probably equipment too. Not too shabby.

FF

PS: Mo, care to shed any light on this?

Oh, hell no, it doesn't; especially not for fencers trying to qualify for multiple teams. It's entirely possible for a fencer to compete in up to 6 circuits: cadet, junior and senior, one each nationally and one internationally.

Plus camps.

Plus lessons (though I imagine some of them get other help with that or at least receive a discount) and other training expenses.

Plus equipment.

From what I understand, 30-40k per year is the average, though more is certainly not unheard of. I personally have heard of one fencer's family spending 70 grand to make the olympics (not counting what they had spent in previous years.)

[RITFencing]

Tim,

One idea I've kicked about in the back of my head for a while to help the international programs support themselves is to hold camps and/or clinics a few times a year where one or more team fencers are there to help train and fence with anyone who signs up, as well as having national coaches run them or participate where possible. Charge a fair fee (which will still not be cheap, say about 200 for a weekend clinic and 6 or 800 for a week long camp) and I think it's not difficult to net a thousand or two for a weekend's work, maybe more. Definitely more for a week long camp.

I realize that this is a difficult thing to fit into a schedule, especially for the national coaching staff. I've worked with (at the time) a current national coach and I'm aware of the enormous amount of time they put in not only on their own part but also to throw together training and competition schedules for their fencers, but even another 5 to 10 thousand for a weapon program could go a very long way.

If you go to areas like New York, New jersey, New England, California or any other area where fencers (and parents) are quite competitive then I'm certain it can be a profitable idea, especially if the team can split up and run multiple clinics in different areas, and it has the side benefit of raising the level of fencing and preparing the next crop for high level competition.

[Craig]

Charge a fair fee (which will still not be cheap, say about 200 for a weekend clinic and 6 or 800 for a week long camp) and I think it's not difficult to net a thousand or two for a weekend's work, maybe more.

Those rates are grossly underpriced for having an Olympian involved in the camp. Based on other sports the rates should be about double that or more.

Craig

[Phrogger]

You may be right about the other sports, but those rates are high for fencing, and I'm not sure it's a fair comparison. Perhaps in the big urban areas, but it would be a shame to neglect other areas of the country that could benefit the most.

[Craig]

You may be right about the other sports, but those rates are high for fencing,

I disagree. Those rates may be high for a normal camp, but I'm not sure that they are for a camp lead by an Olympian or national level coaching staff. If the end goal is for the camp to produce revenue for the team member to be able to continue to fund their training, then the price should be whatever would maximize the profits. Then it becomes an exercise in price elasticity and I would expect, given what fencers in the larger metro areas and larger clubs are paying for individual lessons and group classes, that $200 for a weekend camp is dirt cheap.

One of the biggest problems I see with fencing clubs is that they short change themselves on the pricing, thus making it a lot harder for them to stay solvent. (But that is a discussion for the clubs section.)

Craig

[oso97]

Those are actually pretty good rates. And people will pay them (because they already do!).

[teacup]

$350,000 divided amongst 4 athletes for six weapons, 24 fencers, is only about $15,000 to $20,000 per athlete which is not a lot to support a professional athlete traveling all over the world trying to make an Olympic team. Health insurance alone for these athletes, could cost easily over $100,000. That would leave $10,000 each for travel, food, housing, equipment, not to mention their expenses back in the US.

[teacup]

Those are actually pretty good rates. And people will pay them (because they already do!).

The USFA is hosting a high performance camp in conjunction with the Dallas Foil/Sabre World Cup. The cost is $500.00 for three days, not including travel, lodging or food, which could bring the cost to $800.00 to $1000.00.

http://fencing.teamusa.org/news/article/9749

[Craig]

The USFA is hosting a high performance camp in conjunction with the Dallas Foil/Sabre World Cup.

I saw that and have asked about which coaches and athletes have already committed to being there. I will post here once I have a response on which coaches and athletes will definately by leading the camp.

Craig

[Warrior Princess]

Those rates are grossly underpriced for having an Olympian involved in the camp. Based on other sports the rates should be about double that or more.

Craig

I agree. I used to be a pretty competitive basketball player and for a 5 day 4 night camp I went to for a couple of years, it cost 800 bucks, and the coaches were just unknown college kids.

[Phrogger]

Based on a few weekly camps:

Richmond fencing day camp (local staff) is $300.
Penn State (NCAA coaches) charges $540 including room and board.
Nellya's Elite camp (Olympic-level coaches) is $850 including room and board.

Perhaps I'm looking at the wrong sampling? I'm all for Olympians using their status to earn money for training. But they can't outprice themselves in the market, either.

[RITFencing]

I agree. I used to be a pretty competitive basketball player and for a 5 day 4 night camp I went to for a couple of years, it cost 800 bucks, and the coaches were just unknown college kids.

Overnight camps are much more expensive than day camps.