The article is a bit misleading regarding the USOC paying for winning a medal. They are known to pay for any medal won. I believe it was $25/15/10,000 or $25/10/5,000. However, if an athlete is still in high school or college and want to retain their eligibility they cannot accept the check. If you are someone like Missy Franklin or Katie Ladecki who was still in high school when you won your medal and your parents could not afford the just about guaranteed $100,000+ scholarship/education you would receive from a top school you turn it down.
This is also true with any endorsements or advertising. A good example is the 1998 Women's ice hockey team. Not all of the members of the team were on the Wheaties Box. The five who were still in college or high school did not appear on the box - Sara DeCosta (Providence College), Sarah Tueting (Dartmouth), Tara Mounsey (Brown), Jenny Schmidgall (UMinn/Duluth) and Angela Ruggiero (Choate Rosemary Hall)
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'Integrity is what you do when no one is looking'
"The man who can keep a secret may be wise, but he is not half as wise as the man with no secrets to keep”
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