Green Comes Before Gold For Families of Olympians

In the evenings, after he has finished with his children's boxing training, brought them home and made them dinner, Gary Russell Sr. can begin baking the cakes. It is an incongruous vision, this image of a husky boxing man -- his knee balky from an old hunting accident and voice raspy from cigarettes -- sliding cake molds into the oven. But his German chocolate and pineapple upside-down cakes are a big sell at $2 a slice down at the Small Business Administration, where his wife, Lawan, works.

And they need to sell every slice they can, because the oldest of his five boys, Gary Russell Jr., whom he trained for years in the basement of the family home on Omaha Street in Capitol Heights, made the U.S. Olympic boxing team last August. The moment left the elder Russell dabbing tears from his eyes.

Then, a few weeks later, Olympic boxing officials told him how much it probably would cost him and his wife to go to Beijing to watch their son: at least $25,000.

Gary Sr. was stunned. He asked if the sport's governing body in this country -- USA Boxing -- or the U.S. Olympic Committee paid for parents to go to the Olympics. He was told they only have enough to cover expenses for the athletes, that they could point him in the direction of a travel agent that could offer reduced rates. But otherwise, he was on his own.

"Serious money," said LaShaun Yates, a local YMCA executive who is working to help the Russells raise money for the trip. "This is beyond what even wealthy folks can afford."

This is the side of the Olympic dream few athletes' parents realize. After years of 5 a.m. drives to practice and thousands of dollars spent on personal coaches, they are forced to pay out of their own pockets for sky-high airfares and hotel rooms. While the International Olympic Committee took in $4.2 billion in revenue over the past four years, the Olympians' parents often were resorting to fundraisers and T-shirt sales and taking out home-equity loans just to see their children compete.

A few months ago, Matt Farrell, the managing director of business development for USA Swimming, phoned Hilton, one of the sport's sponsors, for help in trying to put together a rooming package for parents. The hotel chain came back with a deal: 11 nights for $9,000 for hotel only, leaving families to buy their own plane tickets and find transportation around Beijing. Several parents took the offer, knowing they will at least be guaranteed a room at a name hotel and be close to the pool.

But that doesn't include event tickets, which have been in great demand because the Chinese government has kept the majority for its own citizens. Normally the USOC, which will send 605 athletes to Beijing, gives athletes two tickets for each of their events. A few months ago, when each sport learned what its ticket allotment would be, panic set in. There weren't enough. Several sports, including boxing, warned parents to be prepared to buy tickets through brokers. Recently the USOC was able to procure more seats and there is cautious optimism -- though no certainty -- that families indeed may get the two free tickets.

Still, the process has been so arduous that USA Swimming decided to offer another package for its families: hotel and transportation around Beijing for two along with guaranteed tickets for $36,000. That doesn't include airfare, and the cheapest fares generally are running between $2,000 and $3,000.

"You know in your mind the Olympics is going to be a pretty expensive trip, but you don't imagine it being more expensive than your car," said Farrell, who added that most swimming families have chosen the hotel-only option. "It's a little like Disneyland. You think it's going to be expensive but then your jaw drops. You were mentally prepared but you weren't mentally prepared."

Further complicating matters, U.S. Olympic officials have been told that Beijing hotels will enforce a two-person limit in most rooms, meaning families of three and four are going to be forced to get a second room. Rates vary widely from hotel to hotel, with the only constant being that all of them are expensive. For instance, Yates thinks she has found the Russells a hotel for about $400 a night for the three weeks they would be in Beijing. It is probably not one of the nicer hotels; those will cost much, much more.

Athletes who have sponsorship deals can get some help. Speedo, a prominent sponsor of American swimmers, can get its athletes into the company's hotel, according to Stu Isaac, the senior vice president for sales and marketing for the swimsuit company. And while the rooms will cost around $800 a night, the same price as hotels elsewhere in Beijing, the parents at least know it will be a good hotel and close to the venue in which their child will be competing. Likewise, Isaac said he is able to use Speedo's tickets to move parents down from the upper reaches of the pool's grandstand when their kids are racing.