Sum help adds up for Olympic stars
IT’S no secret that most of Australia’s Olympians don’t exactly rake in the big bucks while chasing their golden dreams.
Nor is it breaking news that the hardest time for a lot of our top athletes comes when they finish their sporting careers and discover they’re flat broke or the savings they thought they’d squirrelled away don’t amount to much.
There’s been too many cases of Olympians having to sell their medals and memorabilia just to make ends meet, so the Australian Olympic Committee has teamed up with its official banking partner Westpac to get some expert advice to pass on to athletes.
As part of the groundbreaking Olympian Opportunities Program, which deals with athlete mental health and wellbeing, financial literacy and career planning, the Westpac Davidson Institute is launching an education scheme to teach past and present Olympians how to manage their money.
“The Olympian Opportunities Program, now with the support of the Westpac Davidson Institute, will produce a financial literacy program that will help Olympians build sound financial knowledge and skills for life off the field,” the AOC’s chief executive Matt Carroll said.
“The AOC is proud to offer this service to Olympians and look forward to working with Westpac on this innovative new program.”
Rolling out a financial education program is one thing but because of the wide variety of ages and expertise of Olympians — and the fact that are most are busy training and travelling — the program has had to be specially designed to be as flexible as possible, offering specific personalised advice that can be delivered online, or in group sessions or however bests suits the individual.
“That’s what excited me the most because everyone has such different goals but they personalise it for you,” said Australian water polo star Keesja Gofers.
At 29, the Sydneysider is one of Australia’s most experienced international players, having won silver and bronze medals at the world championships and competed at the last Olympics, but her career outside of the pool is only just beginning.
She and her fiance Scott Nicholson have started up their own beach water polo events company but with her hectic schedule they wanted some professional advice so she was one of the first to sign up for the new program.
“We’ve learnt a lot but you can’t just have a passion for the business, you have to have the financial management as well,” Gofers said.
“There’s definitely things we’ve learnt along the way but there’s a lot more so the biggest drawcard of this program isn’t just about setting up your future financially, it’s also about having peace of mind in the here and now so you can perform at your best knowing the financial side of your life is sorted, whether that’s starting a business or a career or having a savings plan or saving for a house.
“It’s just a program the AOC and Westpac have come up with so I’m all in.”