Menu
Olympics

Big prize laid out on Rio wrestling mat

A wealthy donor to USA Wrestling’s medal incentive program made 2012 Olympic champ Jordan Burroughs an extraordinary promise: half a million dollars for repeat gold in Rio.

Jordan Burroughs, whose London gold was worth $250,000, can double that in Rio.
Photo by: GETTY IMAGES
A favorite in the 74kg freestyle weight class, Burroughs has already received $415,000 from the governing body’s Living the Dream Medal Fund, founded by donors Mike Novogratz and Dave Barry in 2009 to combat the lure of professional MMA fighting.

The fund normally gives $250,000 for an Olympic gold, but at a party four months after London, Novogratz boasted he would double the prize for two-time winners.

“It was spur of the moment,” said Novogratz, a private investor who had been a principal at Fortress Investment Group until late 2015. “It was probably a little unfair to the rest of the stewards for me to go off half-cocked, but it was in line with what we were trying to accomplish.”

At the time, the promise applied to two wrestlers, Burroughs and London 2012 96kg freestyle winner Jake Varner. Varner did not qualify for Rio, but Burroughs won the 2015 world title in his weight class in dominating fashion. Novogratz is one of eight “stewards” who provide the bulk of the program’s funding.

“I cross my fingers and [hope] he wins the gold,” said Novogratz, an All-Ivy League wrestler at Princeton University in the 1980s. “It will be painful to the stewards, and we’ll grudgingly smile. It’s a very strange position to be in, because the better they do, the more money it costs us.”

Burroughs won $250,000 for his gold in London and an additional $165,000 for podium finishes at the world championships since 2011.

NOVOGRATZ
“It’d be incredible,” Burroughs said of Novogratz’s promise. “Life changing, for a wrestler. Absolutely life changing. I’ve seen a lot of NFL contracts signed in the last week, so it’s chump change to those guys, but for me, where I come from, it’d be huge.”

No American has won multiple wresting gold medals since John Smith in 1988 and 1992.

Medal bonuses are common in U.S. Olympic sports, but the wrestling program is by far the most lucrative known prize pool. The Living the Dream fund gives all American wrestlers $250,000 for Olympic gold, $50,000 for silver and $25,000 for bronze. At world championships, it awards $50,000, $25,000 and $15,000, respectively.

Wrestling’s prizes are funded by a combination of the standard U.S. Olympic Committee awards given to all Team USA medal winners ($25,000 for gold, $15,000 for silver and $10,000 for bronze), USA Wrestling funds, small donations and the stewards. Along with Novogratz and Barry, the stewards are Andy Barth, Art Martori, Dave Bunning, Stan Dziedzic, James Bennett and Richard Tavoso.

So far, wrestlers have won a total of $1.2 million from the fund since its inception in 2009, according to Steve Fraser, chief of donor and alumni relations.

USA Track and Field recently created a program that matches the USOC awards, and USA Swimming also has an undisclosed bonus pool. USA Gymnastics has matched the USOC awards since 2008.

Burroughs said the fund has allowed him to be selective about his sponsors and his competitions. Represented by WME-IMG’s Josh Weil, Burroughs has signed deals with Hershey, Chobani and Ralph Lauren for the Rio cycle.

“I can make partnerships based on what I truly enjoy and what I can stand behind, not because they offered me money,” Burroughs said. “Now, when I get free time, I spend it with my family. I compete in the events I want to compete in, not because I want to pay bills.”

Novogratz said he wants to relieve the financial pressure on himself and the other current stewards by adding about 12 more, and by rejuvenating fundraising efforts from the general public. In the meantime, he’s glad Burroughs is the one who might benefit from his loose-tongued promise.

“If Jordan was a jackass, I’d feel very differently and I’d probably change the rules,” Novogratz said. “But he’s been such a good ambassador for the sport, and so helpful, so it makes it easier.”

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 25, 2024

NFL meeting preview; MLB's opening week ad effort and remembering Peter Angelos.

Big Get Jay Wright, March Madness is upon us and ESPN locks up CFP

On this week’s pod, our Big Get is CBS Sports college basketball analyst Jay Wright. The NCAA Championship-winning coach shares his insight with SBJ’s Austin Karp on key hoops issues and why being well dressed is an important part of his success. Also on the show, Poynter Institute senior writer Tom Jones shares who he has up and who is down in sports media. Later, SBJ’s Ben Portnoy talks the latest on ESPN’s CFP extension and who CBS, TNT Sports and ESPN need to make deep runs in the men’s and women's NCAA basketball tournaments.

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

Shareable URL copied to clipboard!

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Journal/Issues/2016/05/16/Olympics/Wrestling-medal-incentives.aspx

Sorry, something went wrong with the copy but here is the link for you.

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Journal/Issues/2016/05/16/Olympics/Wrestling-medal-incentives.aspx

CLOSE