lol well that changes things then doesn’t it? Also, how many collegiate athletes are engineers?? It isn’t happening…
I also was not talking about a World No. 1, hell, only 1 guy can actually acheive that!
I dont personally know what a sub 10 guy, would make?? But from figures that they get from the golden league, it aint too much… Out of all events, only 1or2 get to share the 250k… Thats crap. One would expect a bit more $$ to come from endorsments, but hey, if you got no attitude and and a ugly bastard, your not going to go to well on that front either ey!
Even to bring it down a bit more, a lot of people sacrifice time to train and only become say national finalists in there home country. Even in most events, the top guy in the nation is on stuff all. NOt much of an incentive to keep training ey? If your not making any decient $$ as national champ, and you get a job offer offering more $$, you would be a brave man to keep on running and knock back the job.
Also, once you start work, most people do release they can only expect part time results.
Im sure you could find a National champ getting big $$, but i bet if you look, you’ll find more getting stuff all.
And if you look harder again, i bet, (only guessing here), that the guys that do go on and become a great success have either 1. $$ behind them (parents ect) and or 2. are a marketable item (good looking, have personality ect) or are just bludging through life and just do the running for fun and have great coaching support.
Obviously, if people had years of support financially they would be able to get to the best level that they can personally reach. This doesn’t happen. You can have time to train. No you cannot train 2-3 times a day and get therapy 2-3 times a day everyday, but how many collegiate athletes get that? Not many…
Good points, I think the reason why most fast sprinters (10.00-10.30) get stuff all is because track and field is not a sport that the average spectator really takes to. I mean to be brutally honest the average sports fan will only care about athletics in the 16(?) days the olympics is on. There is next to no sense of ownership and stakes ( unlike a team sport like soccer) being placed on athletes even if they are from your country, in which you will only care about them during the race and thats it. People only really care watching about rivalries or watching the world #1 dust everyone.
lol well that changes things then doesn’t it? Also, how many collegiate athletes are engineers?? It isn’t happening…
Haha so true, how many teams do you see filled with engineer majors when your watching a football or basketball game, compare that to how many teams you see filled with sociology and sports management majors.
I think thats the point, if your just going to uni to basically Train, and not get a great education that is going to get you Paid decient $$ when you leave, your not setting yourself up for later in life are you?
And as Davan says, as people are not getting the financial supprot, they are not able to get to the best level that they can personally acheive. Its a big vicous cicrle,
you dont work and get and have no $$ to do the good races, get good coaching and weekly massages/chro/supplements ect, so you dont acheive your best, Say a 10.30??
So, you get a job, start earning to pay for these things to help push you over that threshold, but opps, now your only training part time, work is taking recovery out of your equation. So, your still stuck at 10.30??
So, what do you do?
Hence, work/lifestyle/$$ would be a more larger factor than just race.
Also, another factor to consider,
if your in the top 10 in your country for say the sprints, v’s, being in the top 10 in the nation as say an engineer! Possablle they would be close to the same $$.
Yet, if your in the top 100 of either, the engineer will be miles in front. People are bound to look at that, and decide if they are willing to sacrifice. I bet there are thousands each yr that are good enough to run extreamly well, but decide on a career 1st.
This is a very good topic, back during my undergraduate studies I had a class focusing on culture and commerce, basically how and why artists were payed lower wages and yet there seemed to be so many people continuing to college for the fine arts with little chance of advancement from this opportunity.
I constantly paralleled this to the track and field arena, however without statistics I still believe that the wage curve of track athletes would still be under that of artists.
There was a lot of talk in the class as well how most artists had to get a “real job” in order to supplement their passion “poorly paying job”.
I believe that this is exactly what occurs to many, well most, even if not all track athletes sometime in their life, hell theres tons of people out there, well just look at this site, most peoples passion is towards track, I would wager some people on here spend almost as much time research track and training as they do on their job, but need a job to supplement their training, though these people arent elite in most cases this still happens its just lower on the curve, however even nearing elite athletes still need side jobs to supplement their “athletic job”.
And all too often, maybe not as much in track, athletes continue on to college and end up focusing on a long shot chance at the pros while wasting their chance at getting a good degree.
I find the whole topic very interesting, especially the seemingly high intrinsic value must have for us as athletes to continue to perform without any exterior awards most of the time, especially monetarily wise.
It is an even harder decision when you are in an established profession/career and you want to bridge the ‘no-mans land’ to sponsored levels. Many sporting organisations will only provide funding when you reach A or B qualifiers: who helps you get there?
i dont think hes serious. hes being sarcastic. because only a complete racist idiot would make such a statement in earnest. i think we can all agree on that. yes yes he must be joking… good one.
I think you might be right martin, I know atleast 2. First up and leading the pack is non other than yourself, then comes me bt I’m not too sure who the third is. Maybe you could enlighten me who you think it is with your superior BS.
Takes one to know one atleast I don’t laugh at my own jokes or try to make up for my short comings by pissing people off… you seem like the kind of guy that hates everyone else cause they got bigger xxxxx than you…
