Questioning Olympic Medal Bonuses
January 27th, 2010

As Canada gears up for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver next month, a healthy portion of the nation has the ever-popular hockey tournament in its sights. Excited at the prospect of recapturing the gold medal that Team Canada last won in 2002, Canadians are eager to see some of their favourite National Hockey League stars take to the ice to represent their country in the sport they claim is their own.

One of the greatest reasons that Canadians have to take pride in their players going for the gold is the fact that they are doing it for national respect instead of a hefty pay cheque. Or are they?

Some may be surprised to discover that as much as the NHL superstars already make (Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby, for example, commands a $8.7 million salary for his contributions on the ice), these same players are being offered cash incentives for winning medals at the Olympics.

As Greg Wyshynski reported yesterday for Yahoo! Sports, the Canadian Olympic Committee is doling out $20,000 per Canadian athlete for winning a gold medal, $15,000 for silver and $10,000 for bronze.

The growing sentiment in Canada is that although athletes deserve to be rewarded for their efforts, is Olympic victory supposed to be about money? Especially with the salaries being earned by NHL players, do they of all people really need the extra cash for playing in the tournament? Many believe that the committee can surely find a better use for the money at this time.

Medal bonuses, of course, can be a good thing however. As Wyshynski points out, the medal bonuses being offered to Canadian athletes is certainly not exclusive to our beloved national hockey team. Athletes in less-marketable seasonal sports are certainly in need of the money they receive for placing in the top three. Curlers and speed skaters need cash too, don't they? And no one event should be recognized as more important than the other.

But the salaries being made by the professional hockey players cannot be overlooked. Many are calling for the NHLers to donate their Olympics earnings, which is very possibly what may happen with most of them. Canadian Olympic officials have already discussed this option, says Wyshynski.

Hockey Canada president Bob Nicholson argues however, that the NHLers deserve to be treated just like any other Canadian athlete living in the village (where Olympians stay during the Games).

“They're going to spend a heck of a lot of money on getting their families and that there to watch them,” said Nicholson, “More importantly, they play at world juniors and men's worlds and we don't pay them any money for that.”

At the end of the day, the decision will be left to the players. We suppose we should simply have the team concentrate on winning the gold medal before this conversation is pushed any further. However, it goes without saying that there are many charities that could certainly use the medal bonuses more than a millionaire professional hockey player.

Either way...Go Canada!