Jason Lezak: America's Unemployed Olympic Hero

[Superscribe]

Has anyone seen the Wrestler?

Yeah. Be careful about glory. Especially if there's someone who can be 8 times more glorious than you can.

[lurkerdad]

How financially distressed is Lezak, and how expensive is it to train and compete as a swimmer? Just looking at all the figures from the article, Lezak was getting at least 100,000 from Nike, gets 15,000 (average) per speech, and gets 1,750 per month, and is now looking for 200,000.

I can understand the frustration, but I have a hard time feeling sorry for him. It doesn't sound like he was really scraping by before the Olympics. I think this quote best sums up why I take a dim view: "Lezak has to pay for his own swimsuits, which cost $550 for a top model; he could use an old one, but that's like bringing a wooden racket to Wimbledon. And anyway, which old suit? He doesn't feel comfortable wearing his Team USA suit to a local meet, where he's swimming for himself." I sense entitlement.

The swimsuit quote didn't make sense to me either. Until I read this WSJ article:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123786158419621421.html

Technology changes another sport yet again. I guess competitive swimming is going to be more expensive than fencing now, equipment-wise.