AW promotion: The Olympics is a focal point in the career of any young person trying to achieve success in an athletic career. But what is the price of Olympic gold and is it really worth the effort? Let’s see

The Olympics are all about dreams, pride, strength, and sheer willpower. It takes an extraordinary person to get to the Olympics and slip that gold medal around their neck. But what is it that pushes people toward the Olympic dreams? What does it take to achieve those dreams? Does that gold medal matter in the grand scheme of things? Let us examine the ins and outs of the Olympic dreams and see how much does it cost to compete in the Olympics in terms of your health, time, effort, and money? Let’s see.

Why go to the Olympics?

Probably every young athlete who takes sports seriously wants to at least participate in the Olympics, and at most, win the gold medal. Unfortunately, for most people, this dream would always remain just that – a dream. Some people actually make it to the games, and their success stories are described in numerous essays. It is no surprise that the athlete students’ favorite “I have a dream” essay examples are about successful athletes who won their trophies and conquered the world of sports. There are examples of people who made it big in the world of sports, and these stories inspire students across the world to take on sports and pursue the Olympics dream.

Is this dream real?

Well, some people actually make it to the games, as you might have found from those inspirational essays, and there are thousands of examples of people who did not make it. So, the dream is real but you will have to work hard to achieve it. The child’s dreams are a powerful drive for achieving success, and if you foster that dream from the start, you can actually raise an Olympic athlete. Even if you are a young student right now and just thinking about an athletic career, you can still make it. However, there is a question of money here, so you have to keep that in mind.

How much does it cost?

Well, if you are a parent who wants to raise a champion, you might want to know how much does in cost to compete in the Olympics. The median price of raising a child from birth to 18 years old is somewhere around $235,000 in the US, but raising an Olympics champion might actually quadruple that price. An average professional tennis player spends around $20,000 a year on training equipment have the potential and trains since 6 or 8 years of age. A figure skater spends more than $35,000 to $50,000 a year, and this does not even include the travel expenses. You can write a research paper on the subject if you want, the prices are just staggering.

So, if a child starts to train at around 6 years old, you can easily add somewhere around $35,000 a year to each year of raising that child. And since your child pursues the athlete dream, they would not have sufficient time to build another type of career, which means you will have to sustain the kid for much longer. So, by your child’s 18th birthday, you will be looking at some $700,000 in expenses. The cost to attend Olympics might go even higher than that if your child gets to train at some of the most prestigious sports schools.

Does it pay off?

Close to never. The US athlete gets $37,500 for a gold medal, $22,500 for silver, and $15,000 for a bronze. Different sports competitions also offer monetary rewards to the winners. A successful and famous athlete might also become a face of some sports apparel brand or whatnot. Depending on the type of sports, they might have the potential to move beyond the Olympics and compete in different divisions of their sport to make more money, so it might actually pay off. However, if you are focused on Olympics only, you will never make that money back. Also, you have to be the best of the best, one in a million athlete who beats every competitor and ends up on top. This takes an extraordinary person, so you have to consider the odds.

Pride, glory, and gold

The very concept of the Olympics being so focused on the competition between the nations is being widely criticized. The athletic accomplishments of just a handful of people do not reflect the strength of the nation, economic stability, and political integrity of a country. These are just a handful of people who trained hard and managed to beat other athletes.

Is it really about glory? Well, if you are not into Olympic archery, you won’t be able to name a single Olympic champion in that sport. If you are not into figure skating, you don’t know who was the recent gold medal winner in that discipline. If you think that gold medal is going to make your name immortal, the bad news is that most people who watched the Olympics do not even care or remember the names of people who won the medals. Yes, you will have your moment of triumph; you will stand on the pedestal as your national anthem hums across the stadium, they will show you on the national news and whatnot. A month will pass, and people will simply forget, that’s how it is. But! You will remember. You will know that you are the one who’ve beaten all the odds and became a champion.

Wrap up

So, is it worth it? Does it make sense to sacrifice all that money, time, and health just for a dream to one day step on that pedestal? For some people, it does. We are not going to discourage you from pursuing your Olympic dream. If you are determined to do it, you will do it no matter what. And maybe, one day, you will find yourself standing on that pedestal with your national anthem rumbling in everyone’s years, and thousands of people praising you for your extraordinary feats of strength and skill.