Even for Olympic gold medalists, financial security isn’t guaranteed. Just ask Lauryn Williams. The Olympic track and bobsled champion earned $200,000 a year at age 20, yet by 30, she was interning for $12 an hour.
Despite being the first American woman to medal in both the Summer and Winter Olympics, her post-Olympic opportunities were scarce.
“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 CNBC Make It. “I get things here or there, but I can’t make a living from it.”
She continued: “The news coverage came, but the sponsors didn’t. I made $80,000 the year I became the first American woman to medal in the Summer and Winter Olympics.”
It’s why, despite making sporting history, she was forced to start from scratch. In 2013, Williams joined the world of white-collar work as an intern at Briaud Financial Advisors, as per her LinkedIn.
“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 added. “I spent all of my twenties competing, so I felt kind of insecure that I didn’t have any real work knowledge.”
Though she had initially been turned down for work at the firm, she said the owner decided to bring her onboard after hearing about her impressive background.
Poor financial advice inspired her career move
Even when Williams was earning $200,000 in sponsorship from Nike, she said her agent took a 20% cut, and then there were taxes.
“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 stressed.
“I had a 10-year career, so it set me up better than the average person by the time I was 30. But it also didn’t give me the income to kick my feet up forever and never have to do anything again.”
Perhaps that could have been a different story if she had good financial advice—and that’s precisely what inspired her second act.
“I did a Google search after having a second financial advisor that didn’t work out and found CFP coursework,” she said. “I enrolled in it blindly, simply because I wanted to better understand finances for myself.”
After two unsuccessful attempts at passing the certified financial planner exam while interning, Williams finally passed in 2017.
Now she is a CFP Board Ambassador helping athletes make smart decisions with their money through her firm Worth Winning.
Many gold-medal-winning athletes aren’t making $100,000 a year
Having now advised various sports stars, Williams knows her experience is very much the norm.
As the Philippines’ first male Olympic gold medalist in history, Carlos Yulo may be set with a fully furnished $555,000 condo, over $200,000 in cash, and a lifetime supply of ramen to go with his medals.
However, for most athletes, a plan B is essential.
“From a sponsorship standpoint, I’ve had multiple gold-medal-winning athletes as clients who didn’t compete in “premiere” sports and weren’t clearing $100,000 a year after all was said and done,” she said.
“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 added.
“But the vast majority of people are going to need to work.”
A version of this story originally published on Fortune.com on Aug. 22, 2024.
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