Clare
went downtown with a friend yesterday, and who should they bump into at The
Taste of Chicago? Why, it was a very
accommodating Olympic gold medalist in beach volleyball. Misty May Treanor posed for pictures and
signed autographs. Good for her and good
for the Olympic ideal.
If
I were there, I might’ve been tempted to ask Treanor how she found the money to
compete in four Olympics. The answer
probably was luck, pure and simple. Sponsors
will flock to beach volleyball.
Wrestling? Not so much.
Apparently,
a number of American athletes have taken to crowdfunding as a way to finance
their Olympic costs. What? I turn on the news—NBC, local or national—and
see all these inspirational stories about athletes from Podunk on their way to
Rio. Never once do they delve into the
matter of financing. The International
Olympic Committee and NBC stand to make all sorts of money from the Games (and
don’t tell me about the IOC being nonprofit; those folks aren’t going to die
poor). Some, heck, most, of the profits
should go into a fund for qualifying athletes: you make the Olympic team, and
you get a little pot of gold in recognition of your sacrifices.
I
can’t wait for NBC to propose the idea.
But I won’t hold my breath.
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