Joe Rogan Calls Olympics 'Disgusting' And 'Corrupt' For Not Paying Athletes Enough Money

Joe Rogan has joined the chorus of voices demanding an increase in athlete pay among Olympians.

The respected UFC commentator has absolutely unloaded on the International Olympic Committee for not paying athletes enough, labelling the governing body a "disgusting, corrupt system".

"All of them should be getting paid millions of dollars," he said while appearing on his highly-popular podcast The Joe Rogan Experience.

"All the winners of the gold medals, all those people that are generating insane amounts of wealth for the Olympics, they should get a giant piece of that.

"They're responsible for the reason why people are watching the Olympics.

"The networks are making it (money) and the IOC is making it and all these other people are making it and the athletes, the whole reason people are tuning in, they get nothing. It's insane! It's a disgusting, corrupt system."

While athlete earnings vary across different nations and sports, it's understood members of Team USA are generally paid the most.

If an athlete wins a gold medal in an individual event at the Tokyo Olympics while representing the red, white and blue of America, they'll earn approximately AU$50,000.

For a silver medal, they'll make around AU$30,000 and for a bronze they can earn upwards of AU$20,000.

And when it comes to team events, the winnings are divided up equally among each athlete.

PA

To put that in perspective, the average salary of an NFL player is around AU$3million while the average yearly earnings of an NBA player is upwards of AU$8million.

Over in the Premier League and it's an entirely different ball game altogether with the average Premier League footballer talking home a whopping AU$12million-a-season.

Oh, and that's not even brining sponsorships and endorsement deals into the equation

So with millions of people fro around the globe set to tune into the upcoming Olympic Games, you can understand the uproar regarding athlete pay.

Rogan wasn't done there though.

The UFC commentator then had his say on the sticky situation which saw sprinter Sha'Carri Richardson slapped with a lengthy ban for marijuana use prior to the US Olympic Trials.

Richardson's suspension means she will now miss the Games altogether, starving Tokyo of a gold medal favourite and a future world star.

The incident sparked the age-old debate as to whether weed falls under the banner of 'performance enhancing drugs' with many fans condemning the decision to axe her from Team USA.

It seems Rogan is one of those people, simply calling her ban: "100 per cent horse s**t".

Other big-name celebrities such as Seth Rogan and Drake have also throw their support behind the 21-year-old.

Topics: olympics, joe rogan, Tokyo Olympics, UFC, Australia, MMA

Max Sherry

Max Sherry is a journalist for SPORTbible Australia. After migrating Down Under from London as a teenager, he instantly fell in love with Aussie sport and its culture. From NRL to AFL, cricket to rugby — you name it, Max watches it (with a beer in hand, of course). During his time at Fox Sports, he worked in the football department covering the Premier League, A-League, Socceroos and Matildas. Born a stone's throw away from West Ham's training ground, Max is obviously a die-hard Liverpool fan.

@maxysherry