Good article on the struggle Jamaican athletes who aren't the very best have in making a living from track:http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20131229/sports/sports1.html?
The Jamaica Gleaner wrote:
The queries revealed that perhaps a decade ago, an athlete who was ranked outside the top 15 in the world could take home approximately US$60,000 a year, which made for comfortable living. Those same athletes are now earning in the region of between US$15-20,000 annually a drop of more than 60 per cent!....
If you are an athlete that is ranked say, number 15 in the world in the 100 metres, you're going to a Diamond League meet without getting a single dollar for an appearance fee. And if you're 15th in the world, you're lucky to finish fourth or fifth in a Diamond League race but you're likely to make a couple thousand dollars here and there. Before athletes used to get much bigger appearance fees and an athlete who is ranked 15th in the world could get three or four thousand dollars appearance fees at some of the smaller meets.
Hate to say it. But without some sort of union, if we are a meet promoter, I'm paying the stars and don't care about 5th or 6th.