Lauryn Williams, an Olympic winner in track and bobsled, earned $200,000 a year at age 20, but by 30, she was interning for only $12 an hour. Despite making history as the first American woman to win medals in both the Summer and Winter Olympics, Williams faced limited prospects after her sports career, according to Fortune.
“There’s this misconception that because I’m the first to do this thing—and still no one else has done it—that I’m booked all year long for speaking engagements,” she told NBC’s Make It. “I get things here or there, but I can’t make a living from it.”
“News coverage arrived, but sponsors did not. I earned $80,000 the year I became the first American woman to medal in both the Summer and Winter Olympics.
Despite her historical achievements, she had to rebuild her career from the ground up. According to her LinkedIn profile, she began her professional career as an intern at Briaud Financial Advisors in 2013.
“I was behind the ball because I was 30 years old and just starting, whereas I had friends who were already doctors and lawyers and well into their careers,” she told me. “I spent all of my 20s competing, so I felt kind of insecure that I didn’t have any real work knowledge.”
Williams was first denied by Briaud Financial Advisors, but was eventually hired after the firm’s owner discovered her excellent sports history.
Even at her pinnacle, when she received $200,000 in sponsorship from Nike, Williams stated that her agent took a 20% cut, and taxes further limited her earnings.
“The money doesn’t go quite as far as people think it does, even though it was a pretty good living for a 20-year-old,” she told me.
“My 10-year career gave me an advantage over the average person by the age of 30.” However, it did not provide me with enough money to retire and never work again.
She believes that with better assistance, her financial trajectory could have been different, and this insight motivated her next chapter.
“I did a Google search after having a second financial advisor that didn’t work out and found CFP coursework,” she told me. “I enrolled in it blindly, simply because I wanted to better understand finances for myself.”
After two failed attempts, Jessica passed the CFP exam in 2017 while interning.
She is now 40 years old, a CFP Board Ambassador, and the owner of Worth Winning, a firm that assists athletes in making sound financial decisions.
Drawing on her own experience, Williams acknowledges that her financial difficulties are common among athletes.
Carlos Yulo, the Philippines’ first male Olympic gold medalist, appears to be amply compensated with a $555,000 completely furnished condo, more than $200,000 in cash, and a lifelong supply of ramen. However, for most athletes, such rewards are uncommon, making a robust backup plan critical for life after sports.
“There are the people that you would call the headliners of the Olympic games that are in commercials and those sorts of things, who are going to be able to retire and never work again after if they organize their finances accordingly,” she said.
“But the vast majority of people are going to need to work.”