My friend was in the finals in Beijing and in London, top-6. In London half a second from a medal. Yes doping would help immensely but those guys have too much honor to do this. No, there is no money behind. He gets sponsoring in form of a boat which is sponsored by the manufacturer. The rest of his life's expenses, all travels, housing, shipping of his equipment, bring wife and kids along sometimes, mortgage on their house, all that needs to be paid for. And it was a struggle to finance all this. Friends help, family helps, and a few local companies in his hometown chip in. He is a construction engineer and his net worth is less than half mine as a mid-30 programmer.

So yes, everybody keep downvoting me and ignore that not every "elite athlete" is some overpaid basketball or soccer pro making 8-figures a year and evading taxes.