This is the same for all strength sports. It's probably not even going to be enough to pay for their travel to be able to get to the meet. In powerlifting, there are a few meets that pay prize money but once again, the same dilemma surfaces that happen in Bodybuilding. Fortunately, most are not doing it for the money and understand they are not entitled to shit. Many years ago I was speaking to one men's open pro who had already spent close to 20K on travel expenses trying to qualify for the Olympia. The prize money isn't going to compensate for what those expenses are so there's no money there. When that starts to happen, the expenses start to climb significantly because of the travel expenses to compete, not to mention all other expenses.

To be able to qualify for the Olympia, if you don't win a show, you're going to have to compete and try to earn enough points to qualify which is multiple competitions per year. You ever wonder why you do not see those giant fake checks outside of a few events per year? It most cases it costs the professional more to travel to the contest than they could recoup if they won. You can do research and figure that out but when you do, don't be surprised.

I don't want to quote the numbers of what the prize money is in Pro Bodybuilding, but outside of a few competitions, it's nowhere close to what people think.

When it comes to strength sports, at the top level, there's maybe some money but only for the very top, a small percentage where maybe 1% can make a living wage or more from the sport. I'll even follow that up to say that there's also no money in Strongman, Olympic Weightlifting and no money in Bodybuilding.

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