It’s 9.30 am Saturday local time; I’m streaming the super rugby final in the background, a game we all hoped the Brumbies would be playing in but are not.
I went for my first exercise since last Saturday, and the morning was glorious. My lungs have copped a beating since I left Australia. I noticed signs of a chest infection three days before departure and went to my GP the day before for a check to get any needed meds. I started the antibiotics that night because I noticed my coughing was worse. I felt that I had improved, but my HRV was still all over the place; I thought that it was because I’d been flat-out treating athletes since arriving, but then I noticed signs of another infection, my asthma got worse again, and I started on the prednisone, the next day I spoke to the incoming doc about it. She loaned me a device to monitor my airway obstruction, which was within normal that day but lower the next. I had green mucus as I’d had four days earlier, so she had me swabbed, and the test came back with RSV, which one of the athletes had before she left Australia, whom I treated on our 2nd day here and had seen five more times since. I hope that I haven’t given it to anyone else; while infectious and in denial that I had another virus, I didn’t want to be confined to my room on my first half day off in 10 days.
I went to Laveno with the Mens Psych and did the buckets “chair lift” one of the men recommended to me. It was a lovely afternoon and while I felt good that day, I woke up Tuesday morning and knew I had overdone it as I woke up tired, and the subsequent RSV diagnosis justifies that fatigue. The good news is I am on the mend and can enjoy the rest of my time here with the company of my asthma cough, which will take a while to settle. (Like my drop foot (Susan), I’m considering giving my asthma a name since we will be together for life, suggestions welcome.)
Enough about me moving on to what I’veI'ven learned about the athlete’s experience.
From the outside, it looks like the athletes are living their dream (how we view most people’s lives that aren’t ours). We don’t see the financial insecurity, the training through injuries and sickness or their demons/insecurities. In my two weeks working with the rowers, I’ve learned a little more about the high-performance system of an Olympic sport.
Rowing Australia’s primary sponsor is Gina Rinehart (Hancock Prospecting) which would be a huge tax benefit for her.
The athlete’s contract is only 12 months long. They don’t pay taxes but aren’t employed, which means they have no employment history to use when they want to get a loan to buy a house; in fact, their income is classed as a donation. Their income for the 12 months depends on their performance at the world championships regardless of how they perform in the world cup regattas, which are held in June and July, with the World Championships in early September. It’sIt'se they are a contractor but without an ABN.
I don’t think this model is favourable for high performance; I can see athletes pushing through injury and illness, making themselves more injured or sick because if they don’t, then they can’t perform; if they can’t, their income goes, and they have less support to get them back to where they need to be. It doesn’t sound nurturing. Compared with other sports, where contracts can be 1 to 3 or even five years long, a guaranteed minimum salary and endorsements/sponsorship are received, getting paid the same whether they play well or not, whether they’re injured or not. Sounds much more nurturing than the structure of an Olympic sport athlete. On top of this, they have stress over being selected for the team or the boat; being a scholarship holder doesn’t guarantee team selection, and being on the team doesn’t mean you will be chosen in the boat that you want.
I don’t have a solution to this, but it doesn't seem fair when you hear about the big bosses (CEOs’ directors) earning more than 200k a year, no matter how the athletes are performing. It’s like the sport is a factory, and the humans are the machines, and when the machine is broken, the factory's boss is still getting their full pay, but the machines are being punished for being broken and have their pay cut or are forced to work when they are broken. Performance outcomes and financial gain take priority over human well-being.
Life is unpredictable; performance is unpredictable, and an athlete could have a great competition prep and be in the best shape but still have a terrible performance because no day is the same. It's about how you feel on the day, and in high-performance sports performing the best you can on that day isn’t good enough and can lead to financial insecurity.
These are purely my observations and reflection to date.
Signing off at 12.10 pm (The Crusaders have won another Super Rugby title) with some more scenic pics from this morning.
Interesting to hear Reinhart is the major sponsor and how the players contracting works. How does it work in other countries for rowing?