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Tim Morehouse’s blog today is an entry detailing his financial challenges. This provides a window as to why many of fencing’s best athletes drop out from international competition after graduating college.
Tim was part of the Men’s Sabre team that took a silver medal at the 2008 Olympic Games. After Beijing, Tim made a goal of making it to the London Olympics.
According to his blog post today, Morehouse is skimming by – barely. At issue is the support structure given to US athletes by the USOC and USFA. If the goal is to win medals at the Olympics, then there needs to be financial support for all of the top US athletes. This is something that the USFA doesn’t have in place, and given the current financial situation for the organization, something that is not likely to happen.
Looking back at some of Tim’s other posts as well as reports from other athletes, it’s clear that our athletes are on an uneven playing field. According to another blog post, top fencers from Hong Kong (that great medal powerhouse) can get a salary of $40,000 or more plus travel expenses and a per diem for competitions. Members of the fencing teams of Italy, Russia, and other countries are employed by the police or military.
The only US fencing athlete that is a full time athlete (that I know of) is Seth Kelsey, who was part of the WCAP program. That program puts the athlete on a training track if they are ranked high enough in the world rankings to justify (in the AIr Force’s eyes) dedicated sport training.
Most of the other athletes are having their dreams funded by their families with minimal assistance from the USOC and USFA. It’s no wonder that the top fencers from the United States drop off the competitive map once they no longer are living in a dorm or at home, but have to pay their own rent.
