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Originally Posted by taco.vidal
Well my original post was about the Olympics and I still contend that to train and compete at that level wouldnt be financially accessible to most people.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Resolute 14
That would describe nearly every sport, honestly.
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We used to shake our heads at the Eastern Bloc countries when they would identify talented children at a very young age and then pump enormous resources into giving that child specialized training with the sole goal of competing in the sport at a world-class level. We'd say it was a perversion of the ideals of amateur sport, not to mention unduly coercive to the child.
With the ever-younger age at which children commit intensely to sports, and the ever-escalating cost in time and money we devote, the rest of the world has pretty much adopted the Soviet system. Half the competitors on the U.S. swim team were home-schooled, a growing trend with elite athletes. These people have dedicated their lives, and vast amounts of money, to creating a world-class athlete from a very young age.
In fact, our system may be less fair than the Soviet approach to athletics, as it's increasingly restricted to the very wealthy. High-level sport has never been cheap. But in recent decades it has gone from a pass-time of the middle and upper-middle class to a one enjoyed mainly by the wealthiest 5-10 per cent.