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In the early 1990s a paddler named Eric Jackson was fast enough to make the U.S. Olympic team in whitewater slalom kayak. But he lacked funds to go. So he dres

In the early 1990s a paddler named Eric Jackson was fast enough to make the U.S. Olympic team in whitewater slalom kayak. But he lacked funds to go. So he dressed up in his full paddling outfit and brought his boat (4m long in those days) and paddle to a street corner in downtown DC. He set up a “meet an Olympian” sign and charged people cash to have their picture taken with him. Much hustle, very entrepreneurial of him, and he made a decent amount of money. But he got into huge trouble with the U.S. Olympic establishment, and was almost dropped from that team. They said they were scandalized that he would dare to try to make personal money from his Olympic team status. It became clear to some that they were also mad he dared to demonstrate how poor many Olympic athletes actually were—by essentially begging on a street corner in a part of town full of prominent people.

IG_Semmelweiss 2y ago
[flagged]
shakna 2y ago
I can't actually find anything on that story. Any chance you have anything? He does describe building his own kayak for the event. [0] But that's probably just to help promote his business. [0] https://hub.jacksonkayak.com/2019/11/the-unabridged-history-of-jackson-kayak/ https://hub.jacksonkayak.com/2019/11/the-unabridged-history-...
ToucanLoucan 2y ago
"You're on the team, but you have to fund your own trip to the Olympics to compete." ... "No not like that!" Never knew if it was real but I've seen on reddit several times that letter someone got from their employer chastising them for not owning a newer, nicer vehicle, since they were making good money at their job and it was "hurting the reputation of the business" that they were driving effectively a poor person's car. It feels far fetched but at the same time, also feels exactly like the irrelevant twaddle that a certain kind of upper management type would make his secretary write a letter about.
- vasac 2y ago
  I remember reading, in the late '80s, a series of interviews with famous programmers in a Yugoslav computer magazine (I think it was 'Računari' - those were translations from some U.S. magazine). In one of the interviews, a programmer (whose name, for the life of me, I can’t recall or find on the internet) mentioned that his boss was embarrassed because he drove an old clunker to meet clients. His boss pressured him to buy something more suitable. So, this guy (the legend I guess) ends up buying an old Rolls Royce to ensure his boss couldn’t complain anymore, all while still not doing what was actually expected of him :)
  - ToucanLoucan 2y ago
    Oh man, I hope it wasn't one of the ones with the hydraulics, haha.
- thevillagechief 2y ago
  It's funny, I drive a 22 year old car, by far the oldest at my workplace parking. I've been talking about getting a newer car but haven't been able to bring myself to spend 35K on one. It's running joke in the office, colleagues will ask if I've bought the new car yet every week.
  - 7thaccount 2y ago
    I'm driving a car that's nearly as old and am in the same boat. Maintenance seems to be about $1500/year at this point. That seems to be a lot cheaper than a monthly payment on a new vehicle. Vehicle costs have just gotten out of control. I want something that safely gets me from point A to B with decent fuel economy. I don't care about much else. I could go buy a new car today, but I don't see the value. People seem to keep buying things like $100k trucks despite them being way outside of budget.
- radlad 2y ago
  Have a family member who works as an assistant at a dealership and they are often pressured into buying a newer car for this reason.
gamblor956 2y ago
Part of the reason he got into trouble was that the US Olympic committee started to pay for athletes' expenses to attend the Olympics in the 1980s (the underlying law itself, the Amateur Sports Act, passed in 1978)...so someone begging on the street would not have been doing so because they needed the money to go (in Eric's case, Barcelona 1992). That being said, the USOC does not financially support most athletes outside of the Olympic window (meaning, from the time they depart for the host city until the time they return). This means that any activities outside of the Olympics are paid for by the athletes out-of-pocket (for most sports, this includes the Olympic Trials to qualify for the team!). Most athletes don't make money from their athletic endeavors as prize monies are usually quite small and sponsorship opportunities are usually very limited outside of the marquee sports. Generally, in the non-marquee sports (i.e., everything outside of swimming, track and field, and gymnastics), U.S. post-Olympic financial funding (i.e., salaried training) is limited to podium finishers, and many of the more niche sports further limit financial support to gold medal athletes. [Somewhat related: The Boys in the Boat is a movie about the UW Rowing Team, which won gold at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. At the time, athletes and teams were generally expected to help pay for the costs of attending the Olympics by fundraising (but as with fundraising today, this meant they were on the hook for any shortfalls). In the movie, Cal writes the check for the final post-fundraising shortfall of $300 so the UW team could go; in real life Cal offered a donation but it wasn't needed.]

IG_Semmelweiss 2y ago

[flagged]

shakna 2y ago

I can't actually find anything on that story. Any chance you have anything? He does describe building his own kayak for the event. [0] But that's probably just to help promote his business. [0] https://hub.jacksonkayak.com/2019/11/the-unabridged-history-of-jackson-kayak/ https://hub.jacksonkayak.com/2019/11/the-unabridged-history-...

ToucanLoucan 2y ago

"You're on the team, but you have to fund your own trip to the Olympics to compete." ... "No not like that!" Never knew if it was real but I've seen on reddit several times that letter someone got from their employer chastising them for not owning a newer, nicer vehicle, since they were making good money at their job and it was "hurting the reputation of the business" that they were driving effectively a poor person's car. It feels far fetched but at the same time, also feels exactly like the irrelevant twaddle that a certain kind of upper management type would make his secretary write a letter about.

vasac 2y ago
I remember reading, in the late '80s, a series of interviews with famous programmers in a Yugoslav computer magazine (I think it was 'Računari' - those were translations from some U.S. magazine). In one of the interviews, a programmer (whose name, for the life of me, I can’t recall or find on the internet) mentioned that his boss was embarrassed because he drove an old clunker to meet clients. His boss pressured him to buy something more suitable. So, this guy (the legend I guess) ends up buying an old Rolls Royce to ensure his boss couldn’t complain anymore, all while still not doing what was actually expected of him :)
- ToucanLoucan 2y ago
  Oh man, I hope it wasn't one of the ones with the hydraulics, haha.
thevillagechief 2y ago
It's funny, I drive a 22 year old car, by far the oldest at my workplace parking. I've been talking about getting a newer car but haven't been able to bring myself to spend 35K on one. It's running joke in the office, colleagues will ask if I've bought the new car yet every week.
- 7thaccount 2y ago
  I'm driving a car that's nearly as old and am in the same boat. Maintenance seems to be about $1500/year at this point. That seems to be a lot cheaper than a monthly payment on a new vehicle. Vehicle costs have just gotten out of control. I want something that safely gets me from point A to B with decent fuel economy. I don't care about much else. I could go buy a new car today, but I don't see the value. People seem to keep buying things like $100k trucks despite them being way outside of budget.
radlad 2y ago
Have a family member who works as an assistant at a dealership and they are often pressured into buying a newer car for this reason.

gamblor956 2y ago

Part of the reason he got into trouble was that the US Olympic committee started to pay for athletes' expenses to attend the Olympics in the 1980s (the underlying law itself, the Amateur Sports Act, passed in 1978)...so someone begging on the street would not have been doing so because they needed the money to go (in Eric's case, Barcelona 1992). That being said, the USOC does not financially support most athletes outside of the Olympic window (meaning, from the time they depart for the host city until the time they return). This means that any activities outside of the Olympics are paid for by the athletes out-of-pocket (for most sports, this includes the Olympic Trials to qualify for the team!). Most athletes don't make money from their athletic endeavors as prize monies are usually quite small and sponsorship opportunities are usually very limited outside of the marquee sports. Generally, in the non-marquee sports (i.e., everything outside of swimming, track and field, and gymnastics), U.S. post-Olympic financial funding (i.e., salaried training) is limited to podium finishers, and many of the more niche sports further limit financial support to gold medal athletes. [Somewhat related: The Boys in the Boat is a movie about the UW Rowing Team, which won gold at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. At the time, athletes and teams were generally expected to help pay for the costs of attending the Olympics by fundraising (but as with fundraising today, this meant they were on the hook for any shortfalls). In the movie, Cal writes the check for the final post-fundraising shortfall of $300 so the UW team could go; in real life Cal offered a donation but it wasn't needed.]