The Olympics - Is Prestige Still Important to Athletes?
Money is increasingly playing a bigger role in sports today. Since the commercialization of sports as a lucrative business the greenback has continued to influence decisions at an ever increasing pace. As athletes, sponsors and associations scramble to make their respective fortunes from this thriving markets, is it coming at the cost of national pride and prestige?
The Modern Olympic games once featured purely amateur athletes who represented their various nations with a lot of pride. These days, the event is one of the most commercialized events in the World, raking in big budgets, economic activities, rights deals and sponsorships to name a few. These actions which may have been more than enough to attract any amateur athlete, fail to make an impression on some professional athletes as they still shun the event.
Soccer for instance is witnessing a lot of craze in its transfer window with players getting sold for outrageously large amounts coupled with ridiculous valuations ($1 Billion for a single player?) Big name players also rake in millions for endorsements and achieve superstar status. Virtually all successful players in most popular sports end up becoming celebrities. Judging by the revenue some players and associations alike rake in from their various organized competitions, competitions like the Olympics may be viewed as nothing more than a hindrance.
It is not uncommon for instance for Superstar NBA players to pull out from their Olympic teams, as they would rather focus and be refreshed ahead of a new season than commit to playing in the games and risk injury. The USA men's basketball team was so depleted in the 2004 Summer Olympics than they Ended up with bronze. Athletes who have made a name for themselves tend to feel more comfortable making these decisions than their less popular counterparts.
Of course there are several commercial benefits associated with participating in the olympic games for developing athletes. Opportunities to get recognized, move to better opportunities and improve personal branding are some of the advantages of taking part at the games. It isn't uncommon to see an athlete describe themselves as 'Olympian' or 'Olympic Medalist'. Yet those who have all these things seem less motivated to participate, forgetting another important virtue that shouldn't be left out - National Pride.
While representing your country may be a little vague in our increasingly multicultural and globalized world, it is still a thing of prestige to honor our origins. For some the nations they represent may be their nations of birth, while others may be the nations that gave them a chance to showcase their talents.
Some countries take 'National Pride' to an extreme though such as Cuba forbidding its athletes from turning professional, making them commit to availability for selection at all international competitions.
Representing your country should always be a super proud moment which even successful athletes should jump on. It is one of the few events that can be viewed beyond the commercialization of sports.
In other to do this there needs to be a balance between the IOC and the various associations involved. Associations should be encouraging active participation at the Olympics and not doing the opposite.
As you say in the part of the commercialization of athletes and all that, it also happens in Baseball or at least that appears to be here in Venezuela with some children who from a young age are placed to train to play Baseball just for the money.
You are absolutely right about this my friend, it is something that should be normal to do it, as a duty or something like that, you don't know how good it is to carry the name of your country on your chest and be proud of it, it is incredible to live something like this and some people avoid it.
Olympics with different sporting activities.
All the sports are now have that commercial whether it's Football, or Cricket or Basketball or Athletics.
But there are players who are professionals yet still amateurs and they think playing for their national teams in events like Olympics is a dream come true.
We have seen how Rafa, Federer and others play as professionals, yet, they still take it as a pride to participate and win some medals in Olympics and Rafa as we know has 2 gold medals and a bronze in Olympics.
Governments will not have much options other than sending their best players to such prestigious events unless players have other reasons.
We here in India, every Olympics, we send a huge team and we know that most of them will not bring any medals, but such tournaments will give the players to compete with World class players and gain some experience.
There were instances when India wasn't winning any medals after those initial ones where our Hockey team used to win 1 medal in almost all the Olympics.
But now, we see atleast a silver and few bronze medals and sometimes One or Two gold medals because of out shooters, boxers and we do have a promising gymnast and they are all professionals yet they want to compete and win medals for their country and they treat those medals will be higher than the other trophies they might have won, isn't that something above commercialization and good for the countries?
Yes, we have witnessed few players giving some silly reasons to skip such prestigious events like Olympics, but they have also learnt lessons for doing so.
Let's hope, this event unites all sportsmen around the World in-spite of CoVid still strong.
Good day to you :)
I think so, the Olympics is a prestigious event, winning a medal on this event is daunting because it is where the best of the best meet.