The International Olympic Committee’s financial report for 2022, published in the USA, shows how employees are cashing in while athletes are left empty-handed at the Olympics. There is also a hail of criticism because many IOC top earners now receive even more salaries than in 2021.
Around the world, the International Olympic Committee is trying to portray itself as an ambassador of an ideal: an organization that brings the world’s youth together through sport. These days too, the Lords of the Five Rings are adorning themselves with flashy images from Gangwon in China, where the Winter Youth Olympic Games have just ended. Or they are already looking forward to the Summer Games in Paris in August.
The IOC is less keen to look at the books in which the huge financial flows of the billion-dollar empire based in Switzerland are recorded. After the salary figures of the IOC’s top executives for 2021 were made public by the American non-profit platform Pro Publica sources last year, the organization has now also published the IOC’s financial report for 2022 with the Winter Games in Beijing . The so-called Form 990 presented is a document that tax-exempt organizations file with the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
Criticism of the athletes
As in the previous year’s edition, the document shows how generously the sports organization from Lausanne continues to distribute the Olympic income among its own employees. The IOC’s 21 top employees alone received almost as much money (12.47 million US dollars/around 11.46 million euros) in 2022 as the smallest of the Olympic summer sports associations – modern pentathlon, rugby or golf – for participation in Tokyo at the 2021 Olympic Games (12.98 million US dollars/approx. 11.93 million euros each). For the associations, it was the money they had to use until Paris this summer.
“We see from the report that the IOC is still operating the way it did 20 or 30 years ago. It’s shocking to see how much salary it pays its employees while the athletes continue to get nothing.”said Rob Koehler, the general director of the global athletes’ association Global Athlete, when asked by ARD: “And not only that: the IOC is depriving athletes of the opportunity to exploit their image rights at the Olympics or even to take a stand on the podium against racism and social injustice.”
The Athletes Germany organization also sharply criticizes the IOC’s salary policy. “It is hardly possible to convey that the IOC apparently pays around 20 executives more than 50 million US dollars over a four-year period, but at the same time fails to pay appropriate remuneration to the around 10,000 athletes competing at the Summer Olympics or to them to participate in the billion-dollar value creation”, wrote Athlete Germany in response to an ARD request.
The IOC likes to boast that it recently earned $7.6 billion (almost seven billion euros) from sponsors, media and other donors with its games in an Olympics, the four years between the games. It then brags about passing the money on to National Olympic Committees and sports federations. This legitimizes the fact that the athletes take part in the Olympic Games without a salary or honorarium.
The Olympic one income millionaire
Most Olympic athletes can only dream of the income of top IOC employees. According to the US form, the Committee Croesus, General Director Christophe de Kepper, including bonuses, premiums and pension payments, will reach 1.58 million US dollars (around 1.53 million euros) in 2022 – and therefore over ten percent more than the year before.
No one in the Olympic administration has perfected the “Faster, Higher, Further” movement of the movement like the Belgian lawyer de Kepper: In November 2001, then President Jacques Rogge brought him into the International Olympic Committee as his office chief, and in 2004 he was given the role of Rogge’s “cabinet chief”. still a comparatively modest $290,000 (around 230,000 euros at the time).
It is also striking how priorities are apparently set in the organization, which is tightly managed by Thomas Bach: while the directors of the areas of sustainability, ethics and medicine, which are important for the future viability of the Olympics, all suffered significant salary losses of around 50,000 US dollars (a good 46,000 euros) compared to the previous year The IOC’s PR and communications experts reliably collect more every year.
Bach’s German confidant Christian Klaue, the communications director, is particularly noticeable in public when he tries to give news a positive spin when criticism of the IOC arises, such as the IOC’s close pacts with totalitarian regimes like China. The former journalist has made a whopping jump from 2021 alone (525,649 US dollars/about 490,000 euros) to 588,074 US dollars (about 557,000 euros) in 2022 – including bonuses and bonuses of 198,953 US dollars (about 188,000 euros), as well as payments to pension entitlements amounting to 54,042 US dollars (approx. 51,000 euros).
The forgotten women leaders
The IOC does not seem to follow the general trend in other areas of modern economics either. The appointment of women to leadership positions under Bach is progressing very slowly. There are just five women among his 21 highest-paid employees. Also striking: four of these five IOC women leaders also had to accept a loss of income from 2021 to 2022.
“How the IOC intends to achieve the equality goals it has set for 2024 remains doubtful.”wrote athletes Germany, “The fact that four out of five women have to accept salary cuts despite a general increase in salaries in top management raises serious questions about the disadvantages faced by women in the IOC.”
Loyal, long-standing employees, on the other hand, can apparently rely on Bach’s loyalty. Who was still taught by his mentor Juan Antonio Samaranch Sr. Pere Miro, who was brought into the IOC after the Games in Barcelona in 1992, was most recently officially listed as Deputy Director General in 2021 with an annual salary of 731,407 dollars (around 693,000 euros) before he left with public recognition, and was apparently also lavishly rewarded afterwards. As an “advisor to the president,” Miro still earned 375,842 US dollars (around 356,000 euros) in 2022, including bonuses and pension payments.
“Modern slavery”
Bach also ensures that the IOC has grown reliably over the last Olympics and that more and more employees in Lausanne participate financially in the Olympics, while the stars of the games continue to miss out. Instead of 372 employees in 2018, the IOC had an impressive 525 employees in 2022. “Although the athletes are the ones who provide the IOC with huge revenues, they are still not recognized by the IOC as equal partners.”says American athlete spokesman Koehler, “This is a form of modern slavery. And it is only a matter of time that governments, which pay for the lion’s share of sport, and National Olympic Committees side with the athletes and hold the IOC accountable.”
The IOC’s total salaries in 2022 have fallen slightly compared to the previous year, but are still rather princely, even for a country like Switzerland: instead of 100.77 million US dollars (about 94.8 million euros) in 2021, that was paid IOC 98.6 million US dollars (about 93.5 million euros) in 2022 – compared to 77.85 million dollars (about 74.3 million euros) five years earlier. This corresponds to the personnel expenses of a medium-sized German city like Bamberg with almost 80,000 inhabitants, but which has almost exactly three times as many employees as the IOC.
$450 expenses per day
Compared to the permanent administration, the current 107 members of the International Olympic Committee receive relatively modest support, as can be seen from the 2022 annual report: IOC members receive $7,000 (around 6,500 euros) annually as administrative expenses. They receive 450 dollars (around 420 euros) in expenses per day at all IOC meetings. Board members and the president receive twice the compensation for their board meetings.
The IOC covered President Bach’s expenses in the amount of 376,000 US dollars (around 325,000 euros) in 2021 and 370,000 US dollars (around 344,000 euros) in 2022. This includes the 275,000 euros in expense allowance granted to Bach by the Ethics Commission – but at least it is tax-free. The IOC also paid Bach an additional 163,000 US dollars (around 150,000 euros) as income tax for his activities in Switzerland.