OUR OPINION: U.S. swimmer is example of what can happen in "other" sports

'Other' athletes can become marketable

By T&D Staff Writer

The salaries of professional athletes in the name sports seem to defy reality. As a society, we've help make it that way, and very little seems to surprise us.

But when an officially amateur athlete, male or female, so performs that he or she can command annual earnings exceeding $1 million, the ability to perform at such world-class level is at least worth noting. We are thinking not only of golfer Tiger Woods, among the very few whose income, earnings and value or net worth approach that of the most highly paid on member teams in big league sports. Big league or world class sports activity is located in nations other than the United States of America.

Many world-class athletes are not American, and they are models, untarnished by misbehavior, scandal or drug-taking to enhance their performance. Some nations encourage athletes they support as individuals in international competition.

We mentioned golf. Amateur boxing often leading to professionalism in heavier weights, gymnastics, figure and race skating, skiing, and swimming and diving are among a host of sports in which few competitors expect to attain world-class skills that pay off, even with the Summer and Winter Olympic Games and world competition at the amateur level at often-irregular intervals.

They occur and consume the time of competitors, coaches, judges, referees, trainers, umpires and specialists, most of whom must be paid for their work. The need exists for indoor and outdoor competition, exhibition and practice facilities that all require care and maintenance full or part-time, another expense. It is really not our intention here to go further about the plants and professionals that must be included in reviewing this subject. Instead we return to world-class athletes.

American swimming star Michael Phelps, 18, set seven world records over just 41 days last summer in world-class-level competition. He got headlines in metropolitan Baltimore and Washington. Perhaps more important for Speedo swimwear, a Nike sporting goods company with Portland, Ore., headquarters, is the probability he will sell by his performance millions of dollars in swimwear.

Speedo already pays him for using his name. If he should repeat his record-setting at the Olympic Games in Athens next summer, he'll earn a $1 million bonus. Is this amateur or professional? How important is it? Sports have changed, so that it's almost unimportant.

We could review the records of many sports associations, collecting the names from their usually salaried public relations officials, of individual or team competitors who are being paid for their abilities at the highest level. In our society, winning is important as it is in other countries.

Nike's support of young Phelps is an example, and a good one. He will not only spark swimsuit sales but camp, country club and swim club competition. Doing so promotes exercise among the youth that he inspires. We read that more of America's young people should be exercising. We need to make more of them proud to do it.

And that's what the marketing of athletes such as Phelps can help achieve.

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