Olympian Returns Home Empty Handed

My husband, Olympian Jeremy Scott, came home to hugs and tears yesterday afternoon.  Jeremy had been home for only a few days since the Olympic Trials in mid-June.  He, immediately after the Olympics, competed in several meets in Germany before returning home.  And while Jeremy returned to an enthusiastic 21 month-old and teary eyed wife, he did not return to the USA with his pole vault poles.

Yesterday, Sunday, August 26th Jeremy checked in at the Delta desk in Dusseldorf, Germany for his flight home as he has done countless times before.  He was told repeatedly and vehemently that his poles would not be allowed on the plane.  After many questions and repeated assurances from Jeremy that his poles indeed have flown many times before without incident, the Delta representative flat out denied Jeremy's pleas.  The options were simple--stay or leave the poles behind.

Jeremy had been promising me (his wife) and Cam (his son) for weeks that he would be home on the 26th.  Cameron had a countdown calendar of how many days until daddy got home posted in his bedroom and on this particular day knew daddy was coming home "today!"  Jeremy did not want to disappoint his family and chose to fly without his poles.

As it currently stands, his pole vault poles (the livelihood of his profession) are still in Dusseldorf, Germany.

Delta cited changes in policy and safety issues as primary reasons for not putting his pole on-board.

This is not the first time Delta has screwed up when it comes to handling baggage--this YouTube clip details Delta charging US returning troops out of their own pockets for military issued bags.

If you think Delta should hear about this, here is their customer service information:
Jeremy Scott's flight was Delta Flight #25.

Delta Air Lines, Inc.
Customer Care
P.O. Box 20980
Department 980
Atlanta, GA 30320-2980

Phone: 1-404-773-0305
Hours: Mon-Fri, 8am-7pm ET (except on U.S. holidays)

Or email them here.

Or Tweet Delta @DeltaAssist

Other ways to contact Delta:  Below is the email address and mailing address for the President of Delta Airlines, along with the phone number for the corporate offices. 

edward.bastian@delta.com

Mr. Edward Bastian, President

Delta Air Lines Inc.

P.O. Box 20706

Atlanta, GA 30320.

Delta Corporate offices--(404) 715-2600

 


 

We Demand Change

Most of you know by now that my husband, Jeremy Scott (El Grande) recently placed 15th at the 2012 London Olympics in the Men's Pole Vault.  I have been asked many times over his career how Olympic athletes get paid.  Most athletes count on sponsorships and endorsements to earn a living.

According to online surveys it appears that the majority of people (who take this survey) believe Olympic athletes get paid.  There are some countries who pay their Olympic athletes and allow them to train full time.  The United States is not one of these countries.  Sponsorships and endorsements are key to an athlete making money.  However, very few Olympic athletes actually have these types of endorsements.  It has been estimated by sports marketing experts that Michael Phelps will make $100 million in his lifetime from sponsorships and endorsements.  This is extremely rare!

In a startling statistic from the United States Track and Field Foundation, only 50% of athletes ranked in the top 10 in their event make more than $15,000 a year!!!!

Why compete?  These athletes love what they do.  They are some of the most gifted athletes on the planet that have the desire to represent their country and strive for gold.

Gold may pay off, earning an athlete name recognition and the potential for endorsements and/or sponsorships.  These things are not automatic seeing as companies want someone who is a good fit for their company, has physical appeal, is charismatic and a good spokesperson.  Most nations do have an "incentive" for athletes who win a medal ranging in creativity and amount (for example Australian athletes who win gold get a $20,000 feature on an Australian stamp and an upgrade on the flight home).  The United States offers $25,000 to an athlete winning a gold medal.  Pretty good pay day, except for when you break it down to look at how that is supposed to sustain an athlete for 4 years while they train for their next chance to potentially win another $25,000.

Look at it this way, your odds of giving birth (women) to identical quadruplets is 1 in 15 million.  Your odds of becoming President are 1 in 10 million.  Your odds of becoming a movie star are 1 in 1,505,000.  Odds of dying from flesh-eating bacteria or being struck by lightening are 1 in 1 million.  The odds of a person becoming an Olympic athlete are 1 in 636,000.  However, the odds of winning a gold medal are 1 in 22 million.  So, you are more likely to be struck by lightening while giving birth to identical quadruplets as you are sworn in as President than winning an Olympic gold medal.  Yet, somehow it seems that those are the only athletes that are actually making money from their sport.

This is not a pity party, this is a wake-up call.  Athletes everywhere are demanding change.  Sanya Richards-Ross (@SanyaRichiRoss) is one of the few athletes that has big name appeal and big name sponsorships, but she is leading the way in the campaign to demand change.  Some of her recent tweets include:

     "We must break our silence... WORLD your Olympians are starving while others make a fortune join in as #WeDemandChange"

     "Hard working Olympians leave the games with no financial support while $6billion earned around these games #WeDemandChange"

     "Lots of money spent around games but it's not reaching the athletes that need it most! Your super heroes are left out! #WeDemandChange"

And my favorite:

     "We love to entertain, inspire, and encourage the world but Olympians are going home unable to pay their bills! #WeDemangeChange"

This demand for change comes on the heels of Rule #40 which prohibited athletes from using social media to promote their sponsors during the times of the Olympics if their sponsors were not "official" Olympic sponsors.  This new rule hindered many athletes from fulfilling their promises to sponsors or losing out on the opportunity to gain new sponsorships.  One athlete was asked to remove a picture of his Nike spikes from Facebook.  Nike was the official uniform provider for USA track and field athletes, but not an official Olympic sponsor, so when his new uniform and spikes arrived, he proudly posted about it on Facebook and was immediately told to remove the photograph or be subject to a fine.  The rule was put into place to protect official Olympic sponsors, but are they succeeding?  

Most people when asked believed Nike was an official Olympic sponsor.  The official sponsor of the Olympics was Adidas, but Nike's clever campaigns had many people fooled.  The rule, instead of protecting official sponsors, just served to further stifle athletes in their attempt to earn a living.  

Join Sanya Richards-Ross and athletes everywhere, #WeDemandChange 

Thanks for listening ;)  

Competition Times for El Grande (Jeremy Scott)

After repeated questions about when Jeremy competes I did some research and found the following:

Jeremy competes in the qualifying round on August 8th at 10AM London Time which is 5AM Eastern Daylight time (4am PT).  I looked at the NBC website and they list pole vault qualifying round coverage from 1:15PM to 2:00PM along with other qualifying events on August 8th.

If/When he makes the finals he will compete on August 10th at 7PM London time which will be 2PM Eastern Daylight time.  NBC coverage of the finals will probably be in their 8PM to 12AM coverage on Friday Evening  August 10th. 

These times are for our local cable carrier, so you may want to verify them at www.nbcolympics.com and look at the tv schedule for your zip code.

NBC claims there is live coverage of every event at http://www.nbcolympics.com/liveextra/ but it looks like you have to be a Time Warner or other cable customer to access this feed.

For those who are interested I just figured out that you can go to www.nbcolympics.com and click on videos and then click event replays to see replays of all events and some events live from the olympics.  This might be the best way to see the pole vault qualifying round and not have to get up at 5AM.

*All of this information is from my dad, so if it's incorrect, please blame him!  ;)