Figure skating, the Olympics and whatever else

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Comments by: YACCS

 
Imagine being an Olympic level athlete trying to afford your training... without the typical scholarships available to most team sports athletes, you find corporate sponsors and endorsements. You do well enough to compete at the Olympics with intentions of competing in the next games. But you also want to go to college and play football for your school. Sounds like a great dream, right?

Except the NCAA has very specific rules. While it allows students to be professionals in one sport and compete as an amateur in another, players are prohibited from endorsing products based on their athletic ability. Student-athletes are only allowed to receive money deriving from their participation in other pro sports if that money is made in salary. Never mind most Olympic level sports have no traditional salary structure. Imagine if say Michelle Kwan decided she wanted to play basketball for UCLA... (unlikely given her height, I know, but think about it)

ESPN Sportscenter ran a long piece on the Jeremy Bloom case. Jeremy Bloom, a US freestyle moguls skier, recently gave up his contracts to play wide receiver for the University of Colorado Buffalo. He had to give the endorsements up before he joined the team to avoid sanctions being levelled against his university. Bloom filed a lawsuit against the NCAA to have a judge bar those rules from applying to his case; the judge denied his request. He still intends to find a way to train in both sports, making him one of the more unique two sport athletes around.

Bloom's lawyers pointed out that the money Bloom had earned came from skiing, not football. The counter argument could be that the endorsements are for his general *athletic* ability, not necessarily one specific sport. They also pointed out the hypocrisy of the NCAA who have contracts with shoe and uniform manufacturer. They held up a Univ of Colorado football jersey with a Nike swoosh symbol and Bloom's skiing uniform with corporate logo. Where is the difference between wearing a pair of name brand Nike shoes versus holding up a name brand skis?


posted by Julia at 6:10 PM