MAG No words

[skschlag]

Or at least no nice ones...

https://www.ocregister.com/2019/01/...id-u-s-mens-national-team-members-this-month/

 

[Rockygym]

Agree it is scandalous.

 

[txgymfan]

Saw that, absolutely horrible!

 

[3rd_time_around]

They pay them? I never heard of that before.

 

[skschlag]

They pay them? I never heard of that before.

Yes. They are grown men, who could not do this without the stipend. They really can't have jobs or anything. These are just the non-NCAA national team members.

 

[Madden3]

It is terrible these athletes are not getting promised stipends. But my understanding was these come (or do not come) directly from the USOC- not USAG. This seems to be what this article is saying here (?):

“The USOC’s Direct Athlete Support (DAS) funding is part of the Performance Partnership Agreement, which is reviewed and mutually agreed upon between the USOC and USA Gymnastics annually. At the beginning of each year, qualified athletes must renew the Performance Partnership Agreement for the coming year. DAS is paid directly by the USOC to eligible athletes and has not been affected by the USA Gymnastics Chapter 11 bankruptcy/reorganization filing.* A very similar situation occurred in January 2018 as well, and the administrative process for renewing the payments for 2019 is in progress." *italics mine.

So who is not paying the direct athlete support? USAG or USOC? I am confused.

(This is entirely aside the issue of whether people who may be guilty of assisting in coverups of abuse reports are getting year end bonuses while the organization they possibly helped destroy is in bankruptcy. Obviously that is gross.)

 

[skschlag]

It is terrible these athletes are not getting promised stipends. But my understanding was these come (or do not come) directly from the USOC- not USAG. This seems to be what this article is saying here (?):

“The USOC’s Direct Athlete Support (DAS) funding is part of the Performance Partnership Agreement, which is reviewed and mutually agreed upon between the USOC and USA Gymnastics annually. At the beginning of each year, qualified athletes must renew the Performance Partnership Agreement for the coming year. DAS is paid directly by the USOC to eligible athletes and has not been affected by the USA Gymnastics Chapter 11 bankruptcy/reorganization filing.* A very similar situation occurred in January 2018 as well, and the administrative process for renewing the payments for 2019 is in progress." *italics mine.

So who is not paying the direct athlete support? USAG or USOC? I am confused.

(This is entirely aside the issue of whether people who may be guilty of assisting in coverups of abuse reports are getting year end bonuses while the organization they possibly helped destroy is in bankruptcy. Obviously that is gross.)

So, that is a quote from a statement from USAG... if it truly does not come from them, I am not sure why they are "trying to address it"

 

[Madden3]

OK from what I can gather looking at a few articles, USOC gives funds to the sport organization to distribute. It tells the sport org where to allocate the funds- but perhaps, not super specifically. What the USOC gives an org is usually only a smallish fraction of the orgs overall budget, because orgs typically make far more money from sponsorships.

So I wonder if USAG, facing financial crisis from lost sponsorships, dipped into what was promised to athletes to cover other things? That may be what the article is implying.

Also as far as paying athletes- US athletes no longer need to be amateurs to compete in Olympics. Fully professional US athletes have been able to compete in Olympics since the 1980s. Athletes who have not "yet" won medals, or who compete in low profile sports, or who compete but never or rarely medal, (so, most Olympic level athletes) are not going to rake in the dough via sponsorships or otherwise be able to trade in on their fame in order to support themselves, nor will they ever be paid to play like athletes in money sports. So those athletes really need financial help and many do not get it and simply have to work a "day job" and that of couse makes it very hard to train enough to be competitive, especially in a sport like gymnastics. So some athletes recieve these stipends. The US government does not use tax money to fund Olympic athletics. Funds come from people who voluntarily give in order to support USA Olympic athletes and athletic programs.

The USOC bases its funding amounts allocated to each sport on previous medal count/likely future medal prospects for the sport. Athlete stipends are only a small portion of the overall budget and very modest.

So basically what is going on (if I have this all correct) is that a modest stipend given to a great athlete in a low profile (for men)/no future earnings sport, who is training to hopefully represent his country at the next Olympics, given to the USOC by private citizens precisely in order to support such dedicated athletes, is for some reason not getting to that athlete because of some screwup or misuse of funds perpetrated by USAG. So yeah. Bad news.

 

[sce]

As far as I understand this, spoke to a human being about it, this particular problem is on the USOC not USAG. Also, Alan Bower’s statements were misrepresented in the article.

 

[skschlag]

As far as I understand this, spoke to a human being about it, this particular problem is on the USOC not USAG. Also, Alan Bower’s statements were misrepresented in the article.

I am really guessing that the truth is somewhere in the middle.

 

[3rd_time_around]

As far as I understand this, spoke to a human being about it, this particular problem is on the USOC not USAG. Also, Alan Bower’s statements were misrepresented in the article.

This seems to be the norm. With the troubles they've had, it seems anyone who can shed more negative light on them will do so, even when its not true.

 

[skschlag]

As far as I understand this, spoke to a human being about it, this particular problem is on the USOC not USAG. Also, Alan Bower’s statements were misrepresented in the article.

I am just curious on this. did you talk to Alan? Or Mark Williams? Since they are the 2 quoted...

I do wonder if USOC gave USAG the money...or maybe didn't because of the bankruptcy. There is more to this story.

 

[profmom]

Looking at the details of the entire Nassar mess, USOC does not come off as heroes. Regardless of whether the fault lies with USAG, USOC, or both, it is disgraceful that the men have not been getting their stipends and I am glad that Williams and Bower have spoken out about it.