lol.... biggest budget and 3rd biggest population in the world. hardly surprising the us top the medal table
lol.... biggest budget and 3rd biggest population in the world. hardly surprising the us top the medal table
Budget means nothing. Olympians in the US train on their own dime. They don't see a single penny from anybody until they win their sport's respective trials. And even after that they don't get hardly anything. We don't have a development program for Olympians here in the States.
Population means nothing. It takes a special breed of person to seriously go after an Olympic medal. Most people in the US would see the sacrifice that Olympians make throughout their entire lives and say, "Nope. Screw that. I'm gonna go watch TV and eat Cheetos. Good luck."
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Music was better when ugly people were allowed to make it.
http://www.bustle.com/articles/17835...arder-than-youThe road to the Olympics is a demanding one — not just physically and mentally, but also financially. Between the cost of coaches, gym time, expensive equipment, and — in some cases — competition outfits, training can get very, very expensive. So how exactly do Olympians make it work while also paying for their regular living expenses? One thing's for sure: it isn't easy. Believe it or not, Olympians don't get paid to train. Yep, let that sink in for a minute.
In fact, the U.S. is one of just three countries that do not provide government funding for their Olympic program. Some athletes get special funding from the national governing bodies of their respective sports, but it's usually only a limited amount. For example, The Conversation reports that U.S. swimming provides "approximately $3,000 to national team members of its top 16 ranked athletes."
DemonGeminiX (08-22-2016)
Thank you, Lance.
I don't care what that wikipedia article states, no one lives at those training centers for years, not unless they're shelling out major dollars to do it, and like Lance's article states, the athletes cover the entire cost themselves.
Nobody rides for free in this country.
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Music was better when ugly people were allowed to make it.
http://www.medalspercapita.com/
Grenada ftw
Australia's a bad example so I'll run with a general case. While we qualified the most athletes at 554, the Aussies sent the 4th most at 421 athletes, behind only us, the Brazilians (465), and the Germans (425). Y'all had 366 athletes, behind the above four, plus China (413) and France (395).
A smaller country could. Assuming that things stay the way they are in the United States i.e. no government funding, then if a smaller country started a national recognition and conditioning program to churn out Olympic athletes in every Olympic sport, then they could very possibly qualify more athletes to the Summer Olympics than every other country that attends the Olympics. They could become an Olympic Sparta where all they do is train for Olympic games. Of course, the cost to the country would be astronomically huge, but it is possible. If their government injects a heavy dose of national pride propaganda and all of the countrymen respond to the call, they could possibly dominate every sport. Is it realistic? No, but truth is stranger than fiction my friend.
It's not just about physical aspects. Don't forget that there's massive dedication, a drive to be the best, that goes into becoming an Olympic athlete. It's more of a mental conditioning. The physical side of the coin is easy. Bodies can be molded very easily. The mind takes a lot more. You're not born with it. It's conditioned into them from a very early age.
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Music was better when ugly people were allowed to make it.
Think I'm starting to like pole vaulting.
PorkChopSandwiches (08-29-2016)
so budget doesn't mean nothing?
also, australia is a good example. The us has ~15x its population.... are you telling me that all things being equal in funding and training, a population of 20-odd million will produce the same amount of these "special breed of people" that are the same level as a country with 300+million people?
I'm telling you again, budget means nothing because our athletes train on their own dime. And population means nothing because the Aussies had the fourth most athletes at the games.
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Music was better when ugly people were allowed to make it.
The population of East Germany never exceeded 19 million in its history yet look at the rankings in how many medals they won at the Olympics while the country existed.
DemonGeminiX (08-29-2016)