75% of US Olympians played in college. Future of Games hinges on fallout from NCAA athlete payouts

BY DOUG FEINBERG AND EDDIE PELLS

PARIS (AP) — Three-quarters of the nearly 600 American athletes lining up for action at the Paris Olympics honed their skills playing college sports in the United States.

It’s an eye-opening figure that places the future of the Olympics themselves into the equation as the NCAA and its biggest schools set priorities when they start paying college athletes who for decades played only for scholarships.

“I think everybody’s going to have to make choices,” NCAA President Charlie Baker told The Associated Press in an interview a few hours before the opening ceremony. He planned to go to field hockey, volleyball, swimming and gymnastics while in Paris.

Baker’s mere presence in Paris on the same day litigators filed details of a multibillion-dollar settlement that will alter the course of the NCAA speaks volumes about the important but seldom-discussed link between the biggest moneymakers in college