Olympians Must Pay

With the twenty second Winter Olympics under way hundreds of athletes are going for gold in their respected sport. Many will try but only a few will succeed. With the United States a top competitor in every Olympic Games over the past century. The U.S Olympic Commission gives compensation for athletes who receive a gold, silver, or bronze medal in the coveted Games. But do these athletes get to keep all of those earnings or do they have to give some of it back up to the federal government?

                Winning any Olympic medal is second to none in any sport and these athletes deserve to be paid for their accomplishments. For every gold medal that an American wins at any Olympic event gets rewarded with $25,000, silver get $15,000, and bronze get $10,000. This is highly earned and they should be able to keep it all right? Well this isn't always the case. According to FOX News, the United States Government can take up to 40% of those earnings just like a normal working person would. This is because that money they receive is considered a normal income check, so that means income tax can be taken out of that check they might receive. That means that if Shaun White wins another gold medal in the Snowboarding Half Pipe event and receives $25,000 he could have to give up almost $10,000 to the federal government!

                This might seem like the government is ripping these athletes off but this actually make sense. People who win the lottery and supposedly win let’s say $235 million dollars really only win $200 million after taxes. So it is not like these athletes are being singled out. This is in retrospect the same as getting a paycheck from your own employer the Olympic Commission would be the employer and the athletes would be the employee and with each paycheck there is always tax reductions.

                The real huge debate about this is that people are saying other countries are not taking taxes out of other athletes reward money. But the thing is we are not other countries. We have guidelines and these people should not have to be waived out of this clause. That is their job and that means they should be treated just like everybody else who has a normal job working as a teacher or even as a fast food worker.

                No matter what job you may have you are always going to be taxed. That is sadly just how things work out. I bet if any person was about to receive $15,000 even after taxes they would be pretty darn happy. Just getting the gold medal is a huge accomplishment and this is just one other reward for all of their hard work that they put into their job to be the best athlete that they can be no matter what the case may be.