The Winter Olympics draw to a close this weekend. There has been a bit of angst nationally that the USA team is not piling up medals, being out-paced Norway (the Vikings long have a history of coming in, pillaging and taking away precious metals!), Germany and Canada.
I'm not caught up in that. Sure, I like to see the USA represented on the podium. But it doesn't leave me in a dark mood when we're not. Although, to be honest, I was thrilled that Team USA knocked off their Maple Leaf-adorned nemesis in women's hockey.
Our athletes do get a little cash back on the investment of years and years of training. Gold medal winners get $37,000; Silver winners get $22,500; Bronze medalists $15,000. I'll bet other countries have similar setups. And for some of the smaller nations who end up on the podium, it might just make that athlete a star for life.
The USA's cash rewards might not seem like much compared to the endorsement dollars that, say, Chloe Kim, Mikaela Shiffrin or Lindsey Vonn will get. (I would have included snowboarder Shaun White, but he's medal lost a bit of shine with his legal woes.)
But for our other athletes, it's lagniappe (that's Louisiana Cajun for "a little extra"). Curling has gotten a big boost in the media. The USA is going for the gold for the first time EVER, but I doubt if McFarland's Matt Hamilton will be getting many calls for national endorsements. So the additional cash is nice.
It's my understanding that it's a flat cash amount for the medals -- so the women's hockey team has to split that gold, what, 25 ways? Doesn't seem quite right. But those ladies made us all proud. It's great to know that there were 9 former Wisconsin Badgers skating in the gold medal match, five wit the USA & four with Canada.
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