While banks have a role to play in providing financial support for top-level athletes, they also have an important role to play in preparing athletes for the transition to professional life and helping them in their post-career years. Between sponsorship and financial education, what measures have banks put in place to support athletes who may or may not be taking part in the Olympic Games?
The Performance Pact, a sponsorship program for athletes
The Beijing Winter Olympics have just come to an end, with 14 French medals, including 5 golds, but the athletes now face new challenges. The French delegation pocketed a total of 790,000 euros in prize money during the Games. How do banks help these athletes to manage their money, and also, when the time comes, to prepare for retirement and retraining?
BPCE, a premium partner of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, is particularly invested in these issues, notably through the Performance Pact, a sponsorship program that "offers companies and individuals the opportunity to support the sporting and professional careers of Olympians and Paralympians ", as the foundation behind the program explains.
As part of the Performance Pact, BPCE supports more than 80 French athletes. This support takes the form of financial assistance, as well as training and career transition assistance when the athletes retire.
Financial education is essential for top athletes
The issue of financial education is also taken seriously by banks, notably BPCE, as demonstrated by the creation of the association Finances & Pédagogies by the Fédération nationale des Caisses d'Epargne (FNCE).
This association, which offers financial education to a variety of audiences, has set up specific programs for top-level athletes, whose problems are not so different from those of other types of audience.
They have to learn how to manage the financial spin-offs of their sporting successes by making judicious investments, and also prepare their career transition by financing studies or training courses.
The need for financial education is often great among top-level athletes, sometimes very young, who can fall victim to scams once they've achieved a certain notoriety, who don't always know when and how to declare the amounts they earn in sporting competitions, and who are likely to find themselves in financial difficulty when their career comes to an end.