美国政府不为奥运健儿提供资助，这一做法迥异于绝大多数其他国家。美国赛艇协会（the U.S. Rowing Association）首席执行官格伦•默里指出，美国各种运动队的资金来源各不相同，大概只有30-35%资金来自美国奥委会（the U.S Olympic Committee）的拨款——而美国奥委会的资金又是来自国际奥委会（the International Olympic Committee）。“美国奥委会拥有大量资金，但需要分给各种运动的管理机构，”默里说。“今年我们从将从他们那里得到120万美元，有一阵子则低至只有75万美元。”另一项资金来源是私人捐赠，少的捐10美元，多的达到10万美元，总计也有100万美元。第三项则是用高尔夫球赛（每位参加者需交5,000美元）等活动募集资金。每家管理机构各显神通，有的从企业那里获得的赞助较多，超过私人支持者的捐赠。

    美国奥委会资助各类运动的模式并非一成不变，过去有所谓的基础资金——即每种运动至少都可以获得一定额度的拨款。不过，美国奥委会体育成绩负责人艾伦•阿什利表示，奥委会逐渐改变了模式，对各种运动的管理机构实行更符合其特点的政策。“我们与各种国家级运动管理机构的关系相当个性化，因此我们与柔道、赛艇和田径协会的关系各不相同，都是根据其需要量体裁衣，尽可能为其训练营、教练及参与适当竞争的策略等提供支持。”他还指出，决定拨款多少的因素是：此种运动已获得多少奖牌，以及今后赢得奖牌的可能性大不大。此外，各管理机构的能力、以及他们在美国奥委会不帮忙的情况下自行筹集资金的能力都会影响到拨款金额。“有些运动有很多会员，能举办大型活动，还经常上电视，另一些运动则相对冷门，很难筹集到资金，”阿什利说。运动管理机构的资金中，美国奥委会拨款所占比例介于5-95%之间。

    The U.S government is one of only a few countries that do not give money to Olympians. Glenn Merry, the CEO of the U.S. Rowing Association said that every team within the United States is funded differently, with only 30% to 35% of their funding coming from the U.S Olympic Committee, which receives money from the International Olympic Committee (IOC). "The U.S Olympic Committee has a pot of money that is divided between the governing bodies," said Merry. "This year we will get $1,200,000 from them, but at one point it was as low as $750,000." Another source of funding comes from private donors giving anywhere from $10 to $100,000 adding up to $1 million. Their third component comes from golf outings, a 5K run, and other fundraising events. Every governing body differs, and some might earn more money from corporate sponsors compared to private donors.

    The U.S Olympic Committee hasn't always had the same model for funding each sport. They used to have a base of funding -- every sport was guaranteed a certain amount of money. Alan Ashley, the chief of sport performance at The U.S. Olympic Committee says that, over time, the Games have moved toward a more customized approach for the governing bodies of each sport. "Our relationship with each national governing body is very customized. So our relationships with judo, rowing or track and field are all quite different. They're tailored around trying to do as much as we possibly can to support their strategy in terms of training camps, coaching, getting into the right competitions," he says. This is determined, he says, by looking at how many medals the sport has won, and if it has a good chance of winning in the future. It also varies depending on the capability of each governing body and how much money they can raise without the help of the USOC. "There are sports that have large memberships, do big events, have a lot of television presence, and then there are other ones that are relatively obscure and it's very difficult for them to raise funds," Ashley says. Governing bodies receive anywhere from 5% to 95% of their total funding from the committee.

    私人捐赠和运动队的会员费收入也是重要的资金来源。默里2002年担任美国赛艇协会首席执行官时，美国赛艇队每年仅能从国家赛艇基金会捐赠者（National Rowing Foundation Donors）那里获得3万美元，2012年此项收入预计将超过100万美元。有些运动的会员基数大得多，比如冰球协会拥有逾30万会员。如果某人参加当地冰场的冰球队，那他们缴纳的会员费中，有一部分很可能会直接流向冰球管理机构。

    那些资金不足的运动员被迫采取一些别出心裁的筹资手段，甚至渗透到他们的日常生活中。美国女子赛艇队的成员每个月大概只能从美国奥委会那里获得400美元津贴，她们与寄宿家庭住在一起，备战奥运之际还要打一两份工，有时候训练十个小时之后尚需扑向办公桌。相比之下，英国赛艇队是该国资金最充裕的运动队，为了备战今年夏季的奥运会，该队获得了近4,400万美元资金，五倍于其美国同行。除了生活费用之外，美国赛艇队通过一套梯次体系决定运动员参加哪些赛事的经费可以报销——除奥运会之外，并非所有运动员参加任何赛事都可以报销费用。如果某运动员在上届奥运会上获得了银牌，那他或她每个月可能会得到800美元补助，相比之下，要是没有赢得任何奖牌，补助可能就只有400美元。“这谈不上刺激运动员获得更好成绩，更大程度上是对他们的努力的认可，使那些顶尖的运动员生活更容易些。”

    25岁的耶鲁大学（Yale）毕业生查理•科尔现在正努力训练，争取获得资格，进入美国赛艇队。当他在普林斯顿大学（Princeton）训练时，他与其他几位赛艇运动员启动了一个课后辅导项目，以便额外挣点收入。“对我们来说这一经历很有好处，但到头来，我还是得集中精力于赛艇，”科尔说。“我知道我不可能真正把赛艇当成事业，但没走到那一步之前，赛艇就是我的头等大事。”

    在英国，运动队的资金不仅来自于政府拨款，还有彩票销售收入襄助。给予运动员经济上的支持，使他们有机会全神贯注于比赛，而不用忙于打工。在伦敦奥运会前的四年中，英国各运动队总计获得了约4.26亿美元资金，是美国奥委会分配给所有奥运项目管理机构经费的两倍还多。

    译者:小宇

    Private donations and teams' membership revenues are also a crucial part of funding. When Merry took over as CEO in 2002, U.S. Rowing went from receiving $30,000 from National Rowing Foundation Donors, to over $1 million in 2012. Some sports have a much greater membership base, such as hockey, with over 300,000 members. If one were to join a hockey team at their local ice rink, a portion of that their membership fee would most likely go directly to the hockey governing body.

    The creative fundraising among poorly funded athletes extends to their lifestyle. The women on the U.S. Rowing team, who receive only about a $400-a-month stipend from the USOC, live with host families and take one, sometimes two, jobs while training for the games, sometimes heading to a desk after 10-hours of training. The British rowing team, in comparison, is the nation's highest funded -- nearly $44 million went to the team to prepare for this summer's games, five times the amount of the U.S. team. In addition to living expenses, U.S. Rowing has a tiered system of what events they can financially cover for each athlete. Excluding the Olympics, not all athletes are monetarily covered to attend every event. If one athlete won silver medal in the previous Olympic Games, he or she might get $800 a month in support, compared with someone who might get $400 if they didn't win a medal. "It's not so much an incentive to do better. It's more to recognize their effort and make it a little bit easier for the people on top," Merry says.

    Charlie Cole, a 25-year-old Yale graduate, is currently in the midst of trying to qualify for the U.S. Rowing team. While he was training in Princeton, he started an afterschool tutoring program with a few other rowers to make extra income. "It was a real learning experience for us, but at the end of the day, I need to focus on rowing," Cole says. "I know I can't make a career out of it in a true sense, but until I come to that point, rowing is my number one priority."

    In the U.K., funding not only comes from the government, but from the lottery as well. Athletes' financial support gives them the opportunity to focus on their game without having to take on a second job. For the four-year funding period for the London games, U.K. sport allocated roughly a total $426 million dollars, more than double what the U.S. Olympic Committee has to give all governing bodies of every Olympic sport.