How do individual athletes who aren't the best in their sport earn money?

deadybai

Did might sound like a stupid question. I was watching the snooker last night and the winner

Ronnie O Sullivan

earned £150,000 for coming first and second place earned £70,000. Not bad!

If thats what the winners get, what do the guys who consistently doesn't make it past the first round make? Im not talking specifically about snooker but also other sports. Like tennis, 100m sprint, boxing, etc.

How does a boxer who has a record of 1 win and 10 loses make a living of that? What does the sprinter who comes last every year in the world championships opening race earn?

themountainman

I'd imagine it very much depends on the sport. Irish olympians work mostly of grants from the governments I think, and some marketing/advertising work if they can get it. I am pretty sure they don't make a huge amount of money despite some of them being top 10/15 in their respective sports. If you're a golfer however, the money is much greater. I'd imagine a sport like snooker is very much middle of the road. Some of the top tournaments pay well, but nowhere like boxing for example. Some of the lesser snooker players would struggle I would think but there are enough tournaments to keep a good few of them living comfortably.

deadybai

themountainman wrote: »

I'd imagine it very much depends on the sport. Irish olympians work mostly of grants from the governments I think, and some marketing/advertising work if they can get it. I am pretty sure they don't make a huge amount of money despite some of them being top 10/15 in their respective sports. If you're a golfer however, the money is much greater. I'd imagine a sport like snooker is very much middle of the road. Some of the top tournaments pay well, but nowhere like boxing for example. Some of the lesser snooker players would struggle I would think but there are enough tournaments to keep a good few of them living comfortably.

So they get would get paid just from entering a tournament and then this money would increase as they progress through a tournament?

Like how much would a top player in a League of Ireland Club make? €750 a week? Then how much do the subs and reserves earn? €100 or €200? How could they possibly train 'professionally' and get another job?

Stojkovic

Top LOI player could earn upto €2k pw.
Average would be on €500-750 pw.
But there would be a fair few on €150.
They work part-time and some work full-time. They would still train at least 4 times a week plus a match.

themountainman

deadybai wrote: »

So they get would get paid just from entering a tournament and then this money would increase as they progress through a tournament?

Like how much would a top player in a League of Ireland Club make? €750 a week? Then how much do the subs and reserves earn? €100 or €200? How could they possibly train 'professionally' and get another job?

Yea, snooker players get more as they progress through a tournament. There is no simple answer to your question as there are loads of people with part-time/full-time jobs training like full-time pros, there are people on grants and in some sports where the money is high you can get by comfortably without being at the top of the game. Some are struggling to play their sport and live, many Olympians would be in this category.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Tennis players struggle to make a living outside of the top 50. Even then you're probably scraping by rather than living in luxury if you're outside the top 20.

Irish player James McGee has written a few blog posts about it. There's a real gulf in prize money and support from the top of the sport down to the bottom.

http://jamesmcgeetennis.com/

There's a lot of debate in tennis about how the women shouldn't get as much prize money as the men at the big tournaments but ask anyone below a certain rank and they'll be more concerned with how the money is divided down the pecking order rather than between the sexes.