The action expanded on the present rules and sanctified what had already been applied by several federations on their own. The I.O.C. will collect each set of rules, and if those rules set within certain broad limits (no prize money) athletes can receive liberal, though not unlimited, subsidization while training and competing.
The wisdom of allowing each federation to establish its own requirement lies in the diversity of fund-raising capability within amateur sporting federations. In the United States the ski team organizers are the best at funding, raising about $2 million through corporate sponsorships and city-organized fund-raisers each year to cover a $1.7 million budget. Gymnastics, basketball or figure skating events can fill arenas to collect the concomitant gate and television receipts.
However, less popular sports, such as fencing, have very little fund-raising capacity with which they can add to the relatively inadequate $100,000 or less they receive each year from the United States Olympic Committee. Before the U.S.O.C. money was made available a few years ago, the fencers who went to international championships were not necessarily our national champions but were those who could afford to pay most of their own way abroad.
If, however, the fencers develop the knack of money-raising, they can make rule changes that would allow their federation to support promising athletes. They could subsidize fencers - within reason - or reimburse them for salary lost while being away from their jobs to train and compete. The ban on professional coaching jobs by athletes can be removed.
A track and field athlete, for example, will be able to collect a fee for appearing at an event, a fee that may well be in excess of his actual expenses. The catch, if it is that, lies in the requirement that monies collected by an amateur must be given to his federation for distribution as it sees fit, including what is dispensed to the collecting athlete and to others. None of this can be prize money. The athlete may appear in advertisements and make commercial endorsements; but it must be the federation that enters into the contract and collects the monies, not the athlete.
New rules could also find a small percentage of what a competitor raises put into a trust fund in his name to be collected when he retires from competition.
An amateur athlete, therefore, through present and proposed rules, need not be poverty stricken nor need he be required to make excessive sacrifices to remain eligible for the Olympic Games.
The means is there, or will be there, for an amateur to be reasonably and comfortably financed during his competitive days. It will be up to the I.O.C. and the federations to see that the system is not abused with gimmickry, such as an athlete attempting to use his federation merely to accept, launder and return huge sums of money he may be able to pick up.
Through this system, no one is going to get rich nor is anyone going to be paid a salary for a token job; and at the same time no athlete need take advantage of food stamps to survive as has been the case with noted American athletes. For the most part, the rationale has been removed for an amateur to say he must cheat in order to survive.
