Quote:
Originally Posted by nfotiu
The olympics are a non-profit and the vast majority of athletes competing are not wealthy by any standards.
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Most winter sports today simply aren't affordable to average people. Not competing at the elite level, where you need to start early in childhood with lessons, training, and travel that runs to many thousands of dollars a year. You really think a family with a household income of $70K can afford to send their 10-year-old to speedskating at $4k a year, or pay for a private snowboarding coach for their 14-year-old? The ski academies elite kids attend starting in junior high run $15k a year just for tuition. Training and touring as an up-and-coming figure skater will run you $40k a year.
It Can Take a Mountain of Money to Raise a Winter Olympian
Elite-level sports, especially winter sports, have become the purview of the affluent and upper middle class. If I had to hazard a guess, I'd bet the median household income of the parents of competitors in the PyeongChang Games was around the 85th percentile for their countries.