Winning an Olympic medal represents the pinnacle of athletic achievement, but it often comes with a significant cost. Many athletes rely on sponsorships with brands, while others must maintain full-time jobs to fund their Olympic aspirations.
However, working full time is nearly impossible for most Olympic athletes, given the physical demands of training and frequent travel to training camps and competition.
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Rower Michelle Sechser, a 10-time national team member and Tokyo Olympian is among the athletes headed to Paris without a personal sponsor. She’s used to it. The 37-year-old has been rowing since age 13 and has never had a sponsor.
“Single but looking,” she said jokingly at the Team USA event in New York last month when Sportico asked her how she finances her path to Paris. “But I work as a client success specialist at Broadridge Financial Solutions. They are supportive of my career as an Olympian.”
Broadridge (NYSE: BR), has been a sponsor of US Rowing and the U.S. women’s national team since 2022. Additionally, the New York-based fintech company created an elite athlete management program, providing positions for up to five U.S. rowing women’s national team hopefuls the same year.
Sechser is part of the program’s first group of athletes along with fellow rowers Molly Reckford, Regina Salmons and Jessica Thoennes, all Tokyo Olympians. There are currently 10 athletes in the program, eight of whom have been named to the 2024 Olympic team.
“We looked at what it means to be part of a crew, the skills and values you learn while pulling an oar, the mindset that competitive sports require, what it takes to create a strong team, and how great teams win races,” Jean Reilly, one of the executive sponsors of Broadridge’s USA Women’s Rowing Elite Athlete program and the director of Broadridge’s wealth management consulting practice, said in an email. “Providing athletes with career and financial stability has significantly improved athlete performance.”
Broadridge’s ties to rowing stem from its CEO, Tim Gokey, who has been passionate about the sports since his rowing days at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. Gokey values the life skills he says the sport imparts, including discipline and teamwork.
Gokey says the teamwork and individual growth within rowing mirrors the career paths Broadridge offers these elite athletes, where they transition across various roles. For instance, Sechser was rotated to the client success group in year two after having worked in the Broadridge Consulting Business Unit during her first year. Reckford and Salmons worked in consulting their first year before moving to mergers and acquisitions, and the strategy group of Broadridge’s investor communication solutions business, respectively. Thoennes started in marketing her first year and is now in consulting.
The athletes work approximately 20 hours a week for nine months of the year, while the other three months, they are traveling and competing around the world. “They train two to three times a day, six days a week, and have work four hours a day, Monday through Friday,” Reilly said.
Broadridge expects to see other corporations following a similar model for the next quadrennium ahead of the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. “Success five years from now looks like the U.S. Olympic Committee embracing an Elite Athlete Management Program that crosses all sports,” Reilly said.
The program is out of the pilot phase and grew significantly last year. The company is not recruiting at the moment as they have a backlog of resumes and requests to join.
The company is discussing expanding the program to additional Olympic sports and countries where Broadridge has employees. “Success in five to eight years looks like 30-50 [Olympic athlete] graduates working full time at Broadridge leading innovation, product delivery, strategy, partnering with clients to create the future,” Reilly said.
Sechser, a California native with an MBA from the University of Tulsa, won a silver medal in the lightweight women’s double sculls at the 2022 World Rowing Championship. The Paris Olympics will be her second Olympics and her first since she started working for Broadridge.
“There is no ‘pro’ rowing, so any athlete looking to compete for the United States is self-funded and puts off life/family/career to do so,” Reilly said. “America doesn’t send athletes to the Olympics; Americans do.”
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