As NCAA and Olympics start paying athletes, what happens to the amateur ideal?
Day 6 of the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile, was the day that Morelle McCane literally punched her ticket onto the USA Boxing Olympic Team roster.
One minute into her quarterfinal match, Ms. McCane split Costa Rican Nicole Vega Moya’s guard with a right uppercut, left cross combo that resulted in the first standing count knockdown. Thirty seconds later, a left cross ended the fight. Ms. McCane went on to win a silver medal.
Thirteen years after she started boxing in high school, she is one step closer to fulfilling her dream of winning Olympic gold. She has already won a slew of other medals, including four Golden Gloves, the 2023 Gee Bee International Tournament, and two USA Boxing Elite Championships. She trains twice a day, six days a week, a time-consuming effort. Yet she is still considered an amateur. In order for her mother and siblings to be able to come to Paris to watch her compete this summer, she started a GoFundMe page to raise $50,000. Currently, she’s well short of her goal.
If Ms. McCane were a track and field athlete, she would stand the chance of at the Olympics. World Athletics, the global governing body for track and field, announced in April that all track and field gold medalists will win prize money this year, and that relay teammates will split the same amount. The group also said it will start paying silver and bronze medalists in 2028. The possibility of this attitude spreading to the governing bodies of other sports, including less-celebrated Olympic competitions, caused curious inquiries and opinions from athletes about remuneration.
