Tax implications of Olympic prize money

In honor of tax day,some sports law reading to accompany your free Cinnabon - Kathryn Kisska-Schulze (NC A&T) and Adam Epstein (Central Michigan) recently posted Taxing Missy: Operation Gold and the 2012 Proposed Olympic Tax Elimination Act.  The abstract provides:

The purpose of this article is to explore the legal and tax environment surrounding the August 1, 2012 bill referred to as the Olympic Tax Elimination Act (OTEA) which was introduced in the U.S. Senate to exempt from gross income the prize money earned by U.S. Olympians from the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) for earning a gold, silver or bronze medal. The OTEA came at a time when American economic growth has been stagnant, and income tax issues became a hotly contested political debate for the 2012 Presidential election. The article explores how tax issues have weaved their way into sports law generally; investigates the USOC’s Operation Gold program, including a discussion of the relationship between the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) bylaws and USOC with regard to the program and prize money; analyzes the proposed OTEA; and addresses alternatives to the OTEA by encouraging other tax savvy options outside the outright elimination of such income from the Internal Revenue Code (I.R.C.) purview.