For most fans, when it comes to speculating about their favorite athlete’s financial conditions, the conceived numbers are generally on the higher side. However, that’s not always the case, as the WNBA Draft 2024 showed once again. This year’s draft had some incredible names vying to find their squad for the next few seasons and Iowa’s star point guard Caitlin Clark is en route to lend her explosive skills to the Indiana Fever for the next four years. But not without its fair share of controversies.

The collegiate basketball sensation’s rookie contract is seemingly making people think of the meager money-making skills that plague the track and field community regularly.

In a recent social media post on X (formerly Twitter), middle-distance runner Nikki Hiltz took a cue from Clark’s newly forged contract to draw attention to how track and field stars are treated regularly. “Caitlin Clark about to get PAID! (like a professional track and field athlete,” reads the Aptos High School athlete’s post accompanied by a bawling emoji.

The first pick of the Indiana Fever squad will pay Clark $338,056 over 4 years. From the breakdown of the payment that’s made public through the social media post by NBA Central, it can be observed that Clark’s payment will gradually increase with each passing year. For any basketball fan in the country, the amount can be a hard pill to swallow considering how exorbitantly the professional circuit can pay their stars. But track and field stars are not alien to such anguish.

Track and field have always witnessed underwhelming conditions

The recent cacophony involving the payment promises made by the USATF and World Athletics for Olympic gold medalists has only injected more fire into the controversies. The revelation that the USA authorities will hand a mere sum of $37,500 to the gold winners in Paris, while the WAA has claimed to provide $50,000 for the same. On the other hand, Diamond League first-place finishers are generally estimated to be paid a $10,000 paycheck if they cross the finishing line first.

Pivotal figures in the USA’s track and field community have come up again and again, drawing attention to the dire conditions that have prevailed in the sport for decades. Noah Lyles has been one of the most prominent faces in that. While most know about his feud with the NBA realm, not many know that NBA players make so much money from their sport that it attracts talents across the world. But despite the US spending more money on sports than anywhere else in the world, track and field remains an exception. Need a proof?

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In the 2023USATF men’s 100m, Cravont Charleston stunned everyone by securing the top spot ahead of Noah Lyles and Christian Coleman. He competes for a small company named Tracksmith, which sells no retail products in stores. In the same race, Brandon Carnes took the fourth place who is entirely unattached. And it’s not just a new thing that’s coming to the fore either.

Earlier this year, Olympic icon and veteran track and field figure Carl Lewis shocked the world after revealing how Team USA went on to make its marks at the 1984 Olympics despite a lack of coaching and infrastructural support for the players. “We had no idea how to do it, we were just winging it,” noted Lewis in his statements.

Now, as Caitlin Clark and WNBA fans get a brief peek into what has become a daily routine for the country’s track and field stars, it waits to be seen if the fiasco’s byproduct can alleviate the troubles of the athletes ahead of the Paris Games.