That sounds ridiculous.
Until you realise it's true.
This week, the new IOC President, Kirsty Coventry, said she doesn't believe Olympic athletes should be paid.
Many athletes were understandably furious.
The Olympics generates billions.
Meanwhile, plenty of athletes are crowdfunding training camps, taking on debt, or relying on family support simply to stay in their sport.
But buried underneath the headline is a reality that every athlete eventually encounters.
Sport rewards achievement. Markets reward usefulness. And those aren't the same thing.
An Olympic appearance is an asset.
Potentially a very valuable one.
But assets only create value if you know what to do with them.
Hidden inside Coventry's comments is a message most athletes don't want to hear but need to:
Nobody is coming to build your future for you.
Not the IOC.
Not your governing body.
Not your club.
The responsibility is yours.
And the good news is that athletes are usually far better equipped for this than they realise. You've already spent years developing skills that most people never master: discipline, consistency and delayed gratification.
Those same qualities are incredibly useful outside the game, when developing a second income stream, or creating opportunities beyond sport.
The challenge is recognising that your sporting career is an asset that needs to be put to work.
So here's the question I'd encourage you to think about: If your sporting career ended tomorrow, what have you built that somebody would still pay for?
The earlier you start answering that question, the more valuable your sporting career becomes.
This week's edition of The Sport of Business explores the idea in more detail, including why I think the entire debate around athlete pay is distracting us from a much more important conversation.
More soon.
