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The Day Of The Rio De Janeiro Olympics

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On the last day of the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, Kyle Snyder made both history and $250,000. He became the youngest American to win an Olympic wrestling gold medal, and USA Wrestling 's Living The Dream Medal Fund awards any wrestling gold medalist a quarter of a million dollars. When Snyder left Brazil, he flew straight to Columbus, Ohio, to begin his junior year at Ohio State, diving headlong into classwork he missed. In the winter and spring, he plans to defend his NCAA national championship, wrestling again for the Buckeyes after accepting that $250,000 from an outside organization - all within the parameters of NCAA rules. This past week, several Olympic medal winners returned to campus just as college football season opens, and the …show more content…

"It 's mostly meant as a way to make wrestlers feel special. We 're the highest-paid medal in the Olympics. "It 's a very nice thing to do. I don 't think Kyle Snyder or [fellow 2016 gold medalist] Helen Maroulis wrestle for that kind of thing. People who put themselves through the hell of wrestling have a very different calling. It 's a Spartan lifestyle. It 's a brutally tough sport. It 's a real reward for someone who put themselves through that." When he helped start the fund, Novogratz assumed he wouldn 't have to worry about NCAA guidelines because an NCAA wrestler winning a medal at the Olympics was so rare. But to be sure, he and USA Wrestling reached out to the NCAA to clear it. Novogratz figured the reward would have to be put into a trust until the wrestler 's collegiate career was over. He found, though, that the NCAA had special dispensation for Olympic athletes. In the NCAA 's words, provided by spokeswoman Stacey Osburn: "College athletes who are representing their country may accept prize money from their country 's Olympics governing body [in the United States, that would be the United States Olympic Committee]. There is no limit to the award money that the governing body can provide for the Olympics." The rule is as simple as that. Katie Ledecky will swim for Stanford after earning more than $100,000 from the USOC in Rio. Joseph Schooling received the equivalent of about $740,000 from

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