BONUS: How do Olympic athletes make money?

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4.8 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 17 June 2025

⏱️ 6 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week, Ryan and Bridget are answering a question about why athletes get paid what they do. In this bonus mini-episode of “Million Bazillion,” Bridget and Ryan hear from Colin Hufman, who competed in the 2022 Beijing Olympics with the U.S. curling team. Curling is a sport that’s played on ice, in which players slide granite stones toward a target area. We’ll learn about Colin’s experience earning income as an Olympic athlete, including payments for medals, monthly stipends and promotional endorsements. The hosts realize that making a living as an Olympian involves a lot more than just training and competing in sports.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, listeners. If you're hearing this, I'm going to assume you're at least interested in money and
0:08.5	understanding the economy and finances. And some of us want our kids to have that knowledge, too.
0:15.3	Check out Million Bazillion, Marketplace's award-winning kids podcast that breaks down money to help dollars make more sense.
0:23.6	A whole new season is out now. Million bazillion is presented in partnership with Greenlight, the debit card and money app for kids and teens.
0:34.3	Greenlight helps kids and teens learn to earn, save, spend wisely, and invest. You can learn more at
0:40.7	greenlight.com slash million and tune in to Million bazillion, wherever you find your favorite
0:47.0	podcast.
0:54.1	Hey, Million Bazillionaires. Today we're answering a question about how athletes get paid. And we
0:59.9	mostly thought of the answer to this question like, what do professional players on team sports
1:05.2	get paid? That's what our question asker, Alistair, wanted to know. But as you know, there's more than one
1:10.6	type of professional or semi-professional athlete out there.
1:13.2	And we wondered, how do athletes get paid when they play for the Olympics?
1:19.9	My name's Colin Huffman.
1:21.6	I'm on the Team USA Curling Team, and I'm based in Seattle, Washington.
1:28.1	I competed in the 22 Olympics in Beijing, China in the sport of curling, and I'm hoping to go to the 2026 games in Milan, Italy.
1:38.7	Wow, he's the real deal.
1:40.8	A real life professional athlete on our show?
1:46.1	Curling is a sport on ice.
1:52.8	You play with teams of four people, and you're sliding big granite stones from one into the other trying to essentially get closest in the middle of a target.
1:57.4	So you're holding brushes in your hand and sweeping the ice.
2:01.8	And there's people directing you on what to do and when to do it. It's a super fun game. I've been doing it since I was
2:06.6	a little kid. And I definitely think it's a great sport to get into. You know, I really didn't
	...

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