Occassional thoughts about orienteering
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| okansas.blogspot.com Occassional thoughts about orienteering |
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Thursday, September 04, 2003 Money and orienteeringJorgen Martensson says he's become "rich" orienteering...rich from experience.The U.S. Champs this year is offering prize money. According to the event web page, "There will be cash awards for the top three M21 and F21 finishers for the 2-Day A meet. First place winners will receive $1,000.00, second place finishers will receive $500.00, and third place finishers $250.00."* I think prize money is a bad idea. I thought about writing why (though I think it is good for clubs to experiment like BAOC is doing). But, then I started wondering how much money I've made as an orienteer (mapping doesn't count). I got a few bucks in travel money from the U.S. team in the 1980s. A couple of times I got a bit of cash to cover some of cost of driving from Lawrence to N.Y. I don't remember how much money it amounted to (not much), but it helped pay for the gas. At the time I had very little money. I appreciated the help. One of the clubs I ran for in Sweden had a couple of programs that let me earn a bit of money. They had performance awards based on results. I remember getting some money when my relay team finished well at the Stockholm District Relay Champs. I might have earned some money when we had a good Jukola result, but I'm not really sure. Again, I don't remember the amount but it was probably something like $50 -- $100. The club also had a program where you earned points every time you went to a club training session. Each point was worth 10 SEK (about $1.50 at the time). I usually got to 3 or 4 club training sessions a week (earning 4-6 points a week). Both of the payment schemes for the Swedish club were designed to achieve specific club goals. The club focused on relay races. The performance awards focused on relay races. The club focused relay races that involved night orienteering, like Tio Mila and Smalandskavlen. The training points emphasized technique -- and especially night orienteering -- practice. The cash in Sweden was managed by the club and you had to use it for orienteering expenses, like buying O' gear or paying for expenses related to a training camp or something similar. *Apparently the prize money is only available to runners eligible for the U.S. Championship (though that isn't what the info actually says). posted by Michael | 8:33 PM 
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