American Olympians victorious but broke

Gymnast Gabby Douglas and swimmer Ryan Lochte's families have spent thousands and dug themselves into holes as they prepared their children to become Olympians.

Gabby Douglas's mother Natalie Hawkins filed for bankruptcy earlier this year. She is said to have roughly $80,000 in debt. Meanwhile Ryan Lochte's family stopped making mortgage payments on their home and they are now being sued to foreclose on the property.

Can training future Olympic superstars cost that much money? According to Tom Himes, former coach of Michael Phelps, it does.

“Eye-popping expenses are par for the course for nearly every Olympic sport. Membership costs at an elite swim club can run $1,500 to $3,000 annually,” Tom Himes explained.

While Michael Phelps may not have money issues any time soon, for those that train like him but never make it as an Olympic medalist, what happens to their money? Does it all go to waste?

According to Karla Grimes, the general manager at the Gage Center training facility in Missouri, “if there’s no gold medal, there’s a college scholarship, there’s some monetary value there. It makes the financial struggles during those years of training worth it. I liken it to paying for college early.”

In China, during the early 1980s the communist regime decreed it was time to build a new generation of Olympians. They currently find children and from an early age train them in specialized sports schools.

Should America follow in China's footsteps? Set up different governmental programs to support future Olympians, or should they just leave the burden of training to the families?

Kevin Fallon, a writer for thedailybeast.com, wrote “taking them away from their homes at a young age and placing them in training facilities for arduous daily workouts makes the idea much less appealing.”

While China may host governmental programs and Americans are shocked at how poor their Olympians actually are, in South Korea Yang Hak-seon – the first South Korean gold medalist in gymnastics – lives in a modified PVC house.

At least the American government does give some money to those that win medals. For gold it is $25,000, for silver $15,000, and finally for bronze $10,000. However Uncle Sam does get his fair share of that money.

The American government claims that since those that won medals are receiving an income they must be taxed the national income tax average.

Although the families of Gabby Douglas and Ryan Lochte will be celebrating their children's victories, they will be keeping in mind the huge debts that they owe.

For the athletes, however, it is a different story. They will be basking in the glory of victory and then focusing on training for the next Olympic Games in Brazil.