Found this in the Sydney Morning Herald Yesterday!!!
OH MY GOD!!, how lucky is bowling. Our bowlers even get to travel to ranked events and unlike rowing if they do well they get paid through a prize fund, a $500 two day camp pales into insignificance compared to this sport!!
Anyone know what Beep Test level they also need to be at?
Olympic Sport Athletes do it tough
THE members of the Australian men's Olympic rowing squad have been training their hearts out while shacked up in cabins for the past week.
The men's eight, who are expected to be a medal chance at the Beijing Olympics, have been living the "caravan-park life" at a training camp at Penrith.
Not that they are complaining. They don't mind roughing it. The bigger sacrifices such as training for 30 hours a week and giving up their jobs make rowing for Australia difficult. There's not a lot of money to be made for simply being a good rower.
"It costs you," said Christian Ryan, a men's eight reserve. "It bloody costs you money."
Ryan believes most of his crew-mates have thrown in careers, or put them on hold, that would be earning them between $50,000 and $100,000 a year.
Rowing Australia provides accommodation, top facilities, flights and allowance of about $5000 during international competition. In comparison to their main rivals, Great Britain and New Zealand, this is nothing.
New Zealand's best rowers can earn a base salary of up to $20,000 tax-free. If they perform well they can earn up to $80,000 tax-free.
Men's eight coach Brian Richardson said the sacrifices could be huge for his crew.
"They have to put on hold their careers and rely on good employers who give them time off and it's time off without pay," Richardson said. "They're losing a lot of income when they do this. The biggest single thing facing athletes that are competing at Olympic level is many don't get enough money in their pocket. They don't get enough money to live sometimes. They have to work part-time to find money for rent, [to] run a car and buy food.
"There's no begrudging it - because they do it because they want to do it. Certainly Australia has the best infrastructure within sport in the world - the AIS and NSWIS are terrific organisations - but they don't put money in the athletes' pocket. There's a support structure there but we are missing out a little bit sometimes."
The men's eight squad has to move to Canberra after the world championships - which is fine by the younger team members.
But for the talented likes of Drew Ginn, Duncan Free and Ryan it's incredibly tough to relocate with their families.
"Both from a financial and family perspective moving is quite difficult," Ryan, 29, said. "For me to relocate for four months of the year it's quite difficult, because basically it's four months' wages gone.
"Rowing Australia have paid some money to the athletes over that four-month period, but it's certainly nowhere near what we believe other countries are getting.
"A lot of money has gone into great facilities for us, great boats which is fantastic, but probably relative to other countries we don't get money in our pocket to allow us to do more training and be more professional, basically.
"I would say we're a lot further behind other countries but that's starting to change which is good. I think Rowing Australia is moving in the right direction."
Unlike most other sports, such as football, rowers become stronger and hone their skills as they get older.
"It's not like football when you're in your early 20s and you're in your peak," Ryan, an Olympic silver medallist, said.
"Rowing, you're peaking in your 30s but life changes and it's difficult to manage it. It would be great if we were earning a footy salary and doing it full-time."
The team is gearing up for the world championships next month at Eton, Great Britain, and James Marburg, 23, has put his public relations career on hold for his Olympic dream.
"It was a great job but there was just no flexibility - I could only train once a day," Marburg said. "I feel I'll make it up later. You only get these opportunities very rarely. Otherwise I'd have to wait another six years to try and crack into a squad. [Everyone] if they haven't sacrificed their jobs, they've sacrificed the acceleration of their career, and that's on hold.
"At the end of the day we don't row for money. It's about chasing the Olympic dream."
OH MY GOD!!, how lucky is bowling. Our bowlers even get to travel to ranked events and unlike rowing if they do well they get paid through a prize fund, a $500 two day camp pales into insignificance compared to this sport!!
Anyone know what Beep Test level they also need to be at?
Olympic Sport Athletes do it tough
THE members of the Australian men's Olympic rowing squad have been training their hearts out while shacked up in cabins for the past week.
The men's eight, who are expected to be a medal chance at the Beijing Olympics, have been living the "caravan-park life" at a training camp at Penrith.
Not that they are complaining. They don't mind roughing it. The bigger sacrifices such as training for 30 hours a week and giving up their jobs make rowing for Australia difficult. There's not a lot of money to be made for simply being a good rower.
"It costs you," said Christian Ryan, a men's eight reserve. "It bloody costs you money."
Ryan believes most of his crew-mates have thrown in careers, or put them on hold, that would be earning them between $50,000 and $100,000 a year.
Rowing Australia provides accommodation, top facilities, flights and allowance of about $5000 during international competition. In comparison to their main rivals, Great Britain and New Zealand, this is nothing.
New Zealand's best rowers can earn a base salary of up to $20,000 tax-free. If they perform well they can earn up to $80,000 tax-free.
Men's eight coach Brian Richardson said the sacrifices could be huge for his crew.
"They have to put on hold their careers and rely on good employers who give them time off and it's time off without pay," Richardson said. "They're losing a lot of income when they do this. The biggest single thing facing athletes that are competing at Olympic level is many don't get enough money in their pocket. They don't get enough money to live sometimes. They have to work part-time to find money for rent, [to] run a car and buy food.
"There's no begrudging it - because they do it because they want to do it. Certainly Australia has the best infrastructure within sport in the world - the AIS and NSWIS are terrific organisations - but they don't put money in the athletes' pocket. There's a support structure there but we are missing out a little bit sometimes."
The men's eight squad has to move to Canberra after the world championships - which is fine by the younger team members.
But for the talented likes of Drew Ginn, Duncan Free and Ryan it's incredibly tough to relocate with their families.
"Both from a financial and family perspective moving is quite difficult," Ryan, 29, said. "For me to relocate for four months of the year it's quite difficult, because basically it's four months' wages gone.
"Rowing Australia have paid some money to the athletes over that four-month period, but it's certainly nowhere near what we believe other countries are getting.
"A lot of money has gone into great facilities for us, great boats which is fantastic, but probably relative to other countries we don't get money in our pocket to allow us to do more training and be more professional, basically.
"I would say we're a lot further behind other countries but that's starting to change which is good. I think Rowing Australia is moving in the right direction."
Unlike most other sports, such as football, rowers become stronger and hone their skills as they get older.
"It's not like football when you're in your early 20s and you're in your peak," Ryan, an Olympic silver medallist, said.
"Rowing, you're peaking in your 30s but life changes and it's difficult to manage it. It would be great if we were earning a footy salary and doing it full-time."
The team is gearing up for the world championships next month at Eton, Great Britain, and James Marburg, 23, has put his public relations career on hold for his Olympic dream.
"It was a great job but there was just no flexibility - I could only train once a day," Marburg said. "I feel I'll make it up later. You only get these opportunities very rarely. Otherwise I'd have to wait another six years to try and crack into a squad. [Everyone] if they haven't sacrificed their jobs, they've sacrificed the acceleration of their career, and that's on hold.
"At the end of the day we don't row for money. It's about chasing the Olympic dream."
