The issue of the underpayment of Olympic athletes has been going on for quite a while. In a bid to resolve the same, the World Athletics has announced a $50,000 cash prize for all the gold medal winners. Now, this is certainly a step forward. But what about the majority of the athletes who did not win a gold? Well, they suffered significantly and had to fund their own expenses. Now, while this is the situation in athletics, gymnastics has been suffering even more. 

In a shocking revelation made recently, the queen of US gymnastics, Simone Biles, earns a peanut compared to the top draws in sports. After the release of Forbes’ Top 10 highest-paid athletes, many would have tried to find Biles on that list. After all, she is the gymnastics GOAT. Competing in three Olympics till now, the 27-year-old has gifted America with 7 precious Olympic gold medals. Apart from that, she has had innumerable accolades and honors to her name. 

It is because of Simone Biles that US gymnastics has attained an elite pedestal. Thus, it would only be normal for Biles must be one of the highest-paid stars. Well, not quite! While the number one on the list, Cristiano Ronaldo looks a league ahead with $260m, the numbers gradually decline as we go down. While there was no sign of Simone Biles in the top 10, the numbers themselves painted a harrowing picture. 

Featuring at 10 on the Forbes list was Lamar Jackson. And his earnings read $100.5 million. To give a context, compared to this number, Biles did not come remotely close to what she was earning at the moment. As per the top 10 highest-paid female athletes’ list released by Sportico, Biles’ earnings read $11.1 million! Surprisingly, this meant that Biles was earning 10 times less than the 10th-placed athletes on the Forbes list! 

And if you think that this was not enough shock for the gymnastics fans, the 27-year-old was the only one from her field to make the cut! Ahead of Paris, FIG President Morinari Watanabe was asked if they planned to give their medal winners additional financial aid. Unfortunately, Watanabe dismissed the idea, further highlighting the sorry state. Now, if these were not shocking enough, Simone Biles’ rank on Sportico’s list of Top 10 Highest Paid Females will turn heads even more. 

Simone Biles faces shocking pay disparities despite historic success

In a recently published list from Sportico, the statistics reveal an even more disheartening scenario centering on the pay scale of gymnasts. And shockingly it is affecting the GOAT of the sport as well. Simone isn’t just earning almost 10% less than the 10th highest-paid athlete but in the list of highest-paid female athletes for the year, Biles ranks at the second last position just a place higher than teenage basketball NIL sensation Caitlin Clark. However, the total earning of Clark is just about a few thousand dollars less than the queen of gymnastics.

After facing a major setback in Tokyo, Biles made sure to carve history on her redemption tour in Paris. Stepping in the city of love, and representing the US, Biles secured 3 consecutive gold medals and one silver medal. After the Paris Games concluded, the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee announced a payment of $37,500 for every gold medal, $22,500 for silver and $15,000 for bronze. The amount she received for winning 4 medals contributed a large part to Biles’ earnings of 11.1 million dollars. 

Simone earns a salary of just $135,000 which is just $35,000 more than teenage basketball phenom Caitlin Clark. Whereas, Coco Gauff, the tennis sensation secures a salary of $9.4 million and a total earning of $30.4 million. Such a startling difference also results from the popularity of the sport. And proving the same, several NBA stars have continued to make a good fortune this season as well. However, in NBC’s live broadcast of the team final in Paris, 12.7 million viewers tuned in to watch Team USA compete. Still, the issue of underpayment for Olympians in several sports, including gymnastics, continues to reign. 

There’s another shocker alongside all of these. The list from Sportico in the Olympic year still had Simone secure at least $135,000 as salary. The previous year, the same box reflected her earnings from winnings to be zero. All that Biles earned was from her endorsements which funded her till the US Olympic Trials. Is it because gymnastics is considered worth the attention of fans every four years? Such a revelation of Biles’s earnings from her wins to be fixed at zero left Australian gymnast Heath Thorpe stunned. She could not believe the fact as she stated, “It is wild to me that you can be as successful as Simone Biles in gymnastics and earn essentially ZERO dollars from prize money.” 

With a huge number of accolades, countless wins, uncountable international glories, a cabinet full of medals, and earning the status of GOAT for her sport, nothing could up her rank in the statistical list of athletes with the highest earnings. Now, sports enthusiasts would just wait for the day when they will get to see their favorite athletes getting rewarded with what they truly deserve.