Some might assume that making it to the Olympics brings financial security, but for many athletes in lesser-known sports, it's not a windfall.
In fact, the costs can be higher than they pay for some Olympians.
"Athletes will go into debt trying to chase their dream," Olympian Boone Niederhofer told Business Insider. Equipment, travel, and lodging can add up quickly, while "the realities of life are still there, even for people who make the Olympics."
For Niederhofer, a bobsled push athlete and petroleum engineer from Texas, the path to the 2026 Winter Olympics required more than speed and strength. He worked full time, trained around his job, and turned his family's Midland home into a four-month mid-term rental while they traveled through Europe for the World Cup season.
The rental income helped make it possible for his wife, Chloe, and their two young kids to join him rather than spend months apart.
Bobsled, familiar to many Americans mostly through the 1993 movie "Cool Runnings," tends to draw athletes from football and track and field.
"Any athlete that is fast and powerful and strong is going to be a good bobsledder," explained Niederhofer, who developed those traits playing football at Texas A&M before an ACL tear ended his college career.
After graduating with a degree in petroleum engineering, he began working in the oil and gas industry. When he was laid off during the COVID pandemic, a former football teammate suggested he try out for the US bobsled team. Niederhofer competed full time from 2019 through 2022, training largely in Lake Placid, New York.
At the time, he was single and able to make the arrangement work. Athletes on one of USA Bobsled's top teams can receive a stipend that caps at about $1,200 a month, he said, while lodging, food, and training expenses may be covered at the training center. But after he and Chloe got married and started to grow their family, the full-time professional bobsled lifestyle no longer made financial sense.
Niederhofer moved his family to Midland, where he restarted his engineering career. He still hoped to return to bobsled, though, and eventually found a company willing to let him work remotely during training and competitions.
That flexibility helped him resume the sport without giving up his primary income. In 2025, he finished fourth at the world championships, putting him in contention for the Olympic team the following year.
A way to bring the family along
The 2026 World Cup schedule created a new challenge: Every race was in Europe, culminating in the Winter Olympics in Italy. To have a shot at the Olympic team, Niederhofer would need to spend months overseas, training and competing before the January team announcement.
He and Chloe decided they needed to find a way for the whole family to travel with him, rather than spending so many months apart.
The couple had learned about Furnished Finder while looking for temporary housing in Lake Placid. As their Olympic-season plans came together, they realized they could also use the platform to list their Midland home.
Before leaving, they packed up their kid's toys, moved most of their belongings into the attic, and swapped a crib for a queen-size bed.
"It kind of did feel like we were moving," Niederhofer said. "And then, when we got back, it felt like we had to move back in."
They received a lot of interest from prospective renters, Niederhofer said, but waited for tenants who could stay for most of their time away and minimize turnover. They ultimately found two travel nurses who rented the home from early November through the first week of March. A friend in Midland served as a local point person while the family was abroad.
The rental income helped fund the family's Olympic-season travel, Niederhofer said. Business Insider reviewed a mortgage statement confirming his ownership of the home, as well as correspondence with a mid-term tenant about renting it for $2,800 a month.
For him, the mid-term format offered a useful middle ground: potentially higher rent than a traditional yearlong lease, without the frequent guest turnover and cleaning that come with a short-term rental.
"If you're having one turnover every three or four months, you really are only having to do something three or four times a year," he said.
A blue-collar Olympic sport
Niederhofer learned he had made the Olympic team on January 19. The financial payoff, however, was modest.
Making the team has led to some free supplements and clothing, he said, but no significant sponsorship income. Niederhofer is eligible for the Stevens Award, a new program that provides Team USA athletes with financial support later in life. The program will provide eligible athletes with $100,000, paid over four years starting 20 years after their first Games or at age 45, whichever comes later.
That future benefit doesn't change the day-to-day economics of competing.
"Bobsled itself is very much a blue-collar sport," Niederhofer said. "Nobody's in bobsled for the money."
He and Chloe plan to continue using real estate as an additional source of income. If they travel for another competition season, they know they could rent out the home again — and if they eventually need more space and upgrade their primary residence, they plan to keep the Midland house as a long-term investment property.
For now, Niederhofer is recovering from another ACL tear and preparing for a possible run at the 2030 Games.
"In my whole life, all I really ever wanted to be was an athlete," he said. "The fact that I've gotten to be an athlete into my 30s has been just a dream come true."
