On the other side of the coin, there is the sustainability of our chosen field. As in any profession, the most common question asked – mostly by parents who have to bankroll their children’s passions – is how will you be able to pay for your training and travel to competitions?
Let’s work on certain cost parameters. Let’s compare sports based on the following expenses: food, travel, training, equipment, frequency of competition and other attendant expenditures, and see which sports our accountants would recommend.
Food. Although athletes generally consume more than the average person, in terms of food, weightlifting, powerlifting and basketball would require the most expense, primarily because of the size of the participants. Gymnasts and boxers, swimmers and runners, on the other hand, eat much less, mainly because they have to keep their weight down. What an entire basketball team consumes in terms of food would be more than enough to send a complete complement of boxers to international competition. In terms of medals, that would be twelve for boxing, one for basketball. It would be very rare in this country to find amateur boxers north of the lightweight division, so you know they eat like birds. And have you ever seen a tall gymnast?
Travel. This always multiplies the expense geometrically. In terms of luggage, swimmers definitely win this category with gymnasts, runners, darters, ice skaters and dancesport and racquet sport participants (tennis, badminton, etc.). Some of gymnasts might even get children’s airfare rates because of their size. Big savings there. However, the number of competitions throws a monkey wrench into this equation. Some sports have a circuit requiring entry into a minimum number of tournaments, like tennis. In this case, some team events would have an advantage.
Training. Perhaps this would be the single biggest advantage of basketball: there are so many coaches here who have trained abroad at their own expense. They only need to travel for exposure to foreign competition. Team sports have the advantage in this regard because they can fly the foreign coach into the country. It would not be cost-effective to bring in a foreign coach to train just one athlete.
Equipment. Again, swimming, athletics, ball sports and outdoor sports take the cake here. Not much equipment is required. In fact, it’s curious that we don’t take full advantage of our vast coastline to train runners and swimmers in open water. With salt water’s greater density and the resistance posed by ocean currents, stroking in a pool would be a piece of cake.
Competition. It also matters where the competition is. You have to test yourself against the best to improve. As an example, although our ice skaters do have competitions in nearby countries, the big guns in their sport are in the United States and parts of Europe. For sports like badminton, the main antagonists are in Southeast Asian. For the martial arts, Asia is the place to prove yourself.
Cost per medal. Swimming, athletics and racquet sports offer the most number of medals for an individual, not to mention longevity. If you don’t believe me, I have two words for you: Mark Spitz. The American swimmer won two gold medals in the 1968 Olympics, then swept up an unprecedented seven in 1972. He holds the record for most gold medals won by an individual athlete. As for longevity, here are two more words: Al Oerter. Despite frequently being injured, the American discus thrower defied the odds and won the gold medal in his event four successive times, from 1956 to 1968. At 43, he actually tried out and would have made it to the 1980 Moscow Games had the US decided not to boycott. Think about Carl Lewis and Jesse Owens, too. Talk about more bang for the buck.
Overall, athletics and swimming account for roughly sixty percent of the events in an Olympic calendar. There are many other sports wherein an individual may compete in more than one event. If we are serious about it, and seriously constrained by finances. Perhaps these are areas where we might want to concentrate our resources.
Then again, we just love basketball, don’t we?