SLAM! Sports
SLAM! Skating
SLAM! Stojko
COLUMNS
REVIEW
INTERACTIVE
ALSO ON SLAM!
Athletes prepare for war
More and more Olympic-sport and amateur athletes are expressing disdain and frustration over the issue of athlete agreements -- the working contracts they sign with national federations and agencies such as the Canadian Olympic Association. The situation is getting more explosive by the day.
Bourne and Kraatz, defending Olympic bronze medallists, will not compete for Canada this season until they sign an agreement with the CFSA.
Canadian rowing star Marnie McBean said yesterday that "in a worse-case scenario" she would walk away from the national team and not compete for the rest of the season if certain issues pertaining to Rowing Canada's athlete's agreement aren't resolved.
The athlete's agreement essentially is a working contract between the athlete and the various sports-governing bodies dealing with such issues as marketing rights, team selection, conduct and doping.
In most cases, there are few problems. The athletes agree to allow the respective federations to use their name and likeness for promotional purposes and adhere to certain conditions of conduct.
In return, they're provided coaching, trips, uniforms and accommodation. But more and more athletes complain that the federations now expect too much.
For instance, members of the Canadian swim team, including the older athletes, were forced to sign an agreement with Swimming Canada forbidding them from having sex during the 1996 Olympics.
In McBean's case, the rowers were allowed to sell space on their oars for personal endorsement purposes -- one of the few chances they had to offer something in return for sponsorship.
Rowing Canada now wants to take away that option and McBean, a tireless worker in helping athletes secure sponsors, is not happy.
"Amateur sport doesn't give a lot in return (for sponsorship)," said the three-time Olympic gold medallist. "It's hard enough getting sponsors, but not being able to give something back (such as a logo on an oar) would make it extremely difficult."
RC counters that initiatives such as cash awards for world championship and Olympic wins have been added.
Nathalie Cook of IMG, the agency representing Bourne and Kraatz, believes some national federations, such as the CFSA, are not allowing athletes enough leeway in terms of being able to market themselves.
Cook said it's hard enough now for amateur athletes to make ends meet without the various governing bodies swallowing up all the marketing possibilities.
And in yet another negative situation for Canada's amateurs, yesterday's ceremony to announce swimmer Marianne Limpert as Canada's flagbearer for the coming Commonwealth Games was marred by controversy.
The Commonwealth Games Association of Canada held the conference at the CBC headquarters in downtown Toronto but conducted the affair entirely in English despite the presence of French-language media and a francophone athlete.
"It was an oversight," said chef de mission Margie Schuett, who presented 14 members of the 277-athlete Canadian team to leave soon for the Sept. 11-21 Games in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. "We made a mistake."
As for the agreement issue, at least Bourne and Kraatz have a way out -- they can turn to the lucrative pro game. Most amateur athletes have to take what the federations lay on the table.
Ed Drakich, a member of the national beach volleyball team and chairman of the marketing committee for the athlete's advocacy group Athletes CAN, said athlete's agreements are dictated, not negotiated, because the federations have all the clout.
"The average (national team) athlete earns $15,000 a year, gross," Drakich said. "That's ridiculous. A lot of athletes sign agreements under duress or protest."
On the flip side, federations argue that they spend thousands developing athletes and maintaining teams and therefore need certain marketing rights.
Alpine Canada president Patrick Laforge said it costs his organization roughly $150,000 a year to keep a skier on the World Cup circuit. He believes solutions are possible.
Skiers, for instance, are allowed to sell helmet space for personal endorsements (if they're in the world top-60). McBean wants the same sort of privilege.
Don't expect this issue to fade away quickly.