Beijing Olympics: Making money playing for the gold

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BEIJING -- When she drove in the go-ahead run in extra innings of an Olympic softball semifinal game Wednesday, Caitlin Lowe was just doing her job. The U.S. Olympic Committee's $1 million funding of the women's softball team this year helped the players travel across America and prepare for the Olympic tournament, while earning modest salaries. "It's great," Lowe said. "If we don't have to have jobs, we can focus on what we're supposed to be doing." There are no universal answers to the questions of whether the 597 U.S. Olympic athletes in Beijing have regular jobs or how they make their money. Kobe Bryant earns $20 million playing in the NBA, while some athletes are happy to work part-time for full-time wages at The Home Depot, as part of a USOC sponsorship. Others, including wrestling champion Henry Cejudo, receive a monthly stipend averaging about $1,000 and have their living and training expenses covered, while they stay year-round at the USOC complex in Colorado Springs, Colo. Cejudo, 21, joined the national team's program while in high school and chose to remain in Colorado and focus on wrestling, a decision that was further justified by his gold medal this week. "Henry's been groomed for this ever since he got on the Olympic Training Center campus," said his coach, Kevin Jackson. Athletes in wrestling, women's volleyball, weightlifting, judo and boxing are among the residents in Colorado Springs or two other centers, accounting for about one-third of the U.S. contestants in Beijing. Greco-Roman wrestler T.C. Dantzler lives in Colorado Springs, and he also works to support his family. Dantzler, 37, founded a company specializing in personnel background checks, with some two dozen employees and 75 clients, including a few sports' national governing bodies. For most athletes, the need to work or not is based on their ability to secure endorsements or compete professionally. BMX bicycle racer Kyle Bennett hopes his sport's first-time appearance in the Games will help him attract more sponsors. "They're actually bringing money into it, so that's nice," Bennett said. "That's what's good about being in the Olympics. Now, we're getting a lot more of that stuff." Swimming star Michael Phelps already was earning a reported $5 million annually, and he will cash in even more after winning eight gold medals. In his latest promotion, he will appear on packages of Frosted Flakes. It's different for fencers. Keeth Smart and his sister Erinn, each a silver medalist in Beijing, work in New York as financial analysts. For other athletes who require more training time, The Home Depot's Olympic Jobs Opportunities Program is popular -- especially in Utah. In the 2006 Winter Olympics, the U.S. team included 12 members who worked at Utah locations, including bobsled medalist Shauna Rohbock. Coaching is a natural career path for many Olympians, including several softball players. Cat Osterman, a pitcher, balanced her work as an assistant at DePaul University in Chicago this past spring with the U.S. team's 46-city tour that spread from February to July. After the Olympics, "It will be great to be coaching full-time and actually be around to contribute," Osterman said. For now, the softball players like getting paid to play. "The fact they can do that and make us full-time athletes is great," Lowe said. "You're not going to see Major League Baseball salaries, but it's definitely enough to provide for you."(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)