TRONDHEIM. The billion-dollar business run by the International Olympic Committee, the IOC, is once again talking about the sports world.
The US non-profit organization Pro Publica recently published the IOC’s financial data for the 2022 Olympic year. The data comes from the IOC’s submission to the US IRS from the documentary.
Based on the documentary, the sports umbrella organization has been quite generous in distributing the funds it received from the Olympics and other mega-events to its staff. The 21 best-paid employees of the IOC received a total of 11.5 million euros in 2022.
The CEO made the best of them Christophe de Kepper. The Belgian lawyer earned about 1.5 million euros including bonuses and other fees. De Kepper’s earnings increased by more than 10 percent compared to 2021.
A total of ten KOK employees each earned more than 500,000 euros in 2022.
Director of the international sports association Global Athlete Rob Koehler considers the published readings shocking. He says that the vast majority of Olympic athletes can only dream of similar amounts of money.
– This is completely unsustainable. The IOC wraps up the money when the main stars of the Olympic show get crumbs, Koehler, who participated in the international Play the Game conference in Trondheim, commented to Urheilu.
Chairman of the Finnish Sports Association Riikka Pakarinen agrees.
– The IOC’s actions have already attracted criticism, and the salary discussion only reinforces the image of complacency. When it comes to internationally demanding tasks, the salary level is of course high, but moderation has been lost, Pakarinen says.
Athletes disappointed
According to Koehler, many athletes have commented on the IOC’s distribution of money to his organization. In addition to the actual sums, the athletes are bothered by the IOC rules, which limit the athletes’ own sponsorship cooperation and expression of opinion during the Olympics.
For example, athletes may not use words or symbols referring to the Olympics if they make social media posts with their own sponsors (who are not official partners of the Olympics) during the Games.
The expression of political opinions during competitions or award ceremonies is prohibited.
– The IOC works like a commercial sports organization and not like a non-profit organization, which it says it is. The IOC uses athletes as its free labor while its executives live a very good life with handsome salaries, says Koehler.
– This disgusts the Olympic athletes we have spoken with. Many of them invest in their careers for 15–20 years and are left with nothing when they end.
Leading researcher at Jyväskylä University of Applied Sciences Kati Lehtonen finds the IOC’s activities confusing.
– KOK seems to live its own life. The proportions are starting to be such that it is difficult for me to understand on what basis the wage level of the employees of the IOC has been determined.
– It seems that sport is not so important anymore, but it allows you to catch big money.
How to proceed from here?
The Global Athlete organization and Canada’s Ryerson University did in 2020 investigation into IOC’s use of money. According to it, 4.1 percent of the IOC’s annual revenues of around 1.5 billion euros went to the athletes. This included, among other things, scholarships received by athletes and rewards from success.
According to Riikka Pakarinen of the Sports Association, there must be a change in the matter. He demands transparency and a critical discussion about changing the system.
– In today’s sports organizations, athletes must always be at the center. The operation of the IOC is far from that. The system should be developed in a direction where the athletes would get more of the profits.
Rob Koehler feels that the athletes must have clearly more influence in the Olympic movement’s decision-making.
– The IOC is afraid of that, because it would mean that they have to report openly and in detail about their use of money. Now we don’t have a clear picture of where all the money comes from and what it is used for.
Kati Lehtonen says she is more concerned about the bigger picture.
– I am concerned about how an organization like the IOC supports sports activities and sports themselves. It seems that we talk a lot about individuals such as athletes, coaches and leaders, but by what means will sports develop and survive in the future?
– If the ground work hasn’t been done or the countries don’t have opportunities for top sports, we won’t have athletes either.
All three experts agree that the reputation of the Olympic movement has taken a severe hit in recent years. The salary data from the IOC did not really improve the matter.
– Things are getting worse. This has gone from the beauty of sports to something completely different: greed and corruption, says Rob Koehler.
– If things continue like this, I fear that the entire Olympic brand will wither away.