To be annoyed with the idolisation of Olympic athletes?

[Floogal]

Sick of this every 4 years. I am not against the Olympics per se. I like watching the judo, boxing, handball and volleyball. But these points explain why I find hero worship of athletes annoying.

1. People are very quick to moan about how footballers are overpaid for simply playing football. Or Connor McGregor being on benefits while training to be in the UFC. They are fair points, however Olympic atheltes paid a healthy income and have a lot of their expenses paid for.
2. Similar to the previous point, I hate the way they are lauded by the media and given honours for doing something that pays quite well and that they enjoy.
3. I remember last week we were watching ITV news. There was a feature about private sector carers being overworked and underpaid and how it impacts their personal lives. Later there was a documentary about Olympic athletes, many going on about sacrificing their leisure and family lives. Bit hard to feel sorry for them.
4. The government and media (as well as professional athletes) like to go on about how obese and unhealthy most people are. Well most people would love to only worry about excercise and nutrition, but SOME OF US HAVE TO WORK FOR A LIVING!
5. This point has been touched upon by the media and few recent MN threads. Many of the athletes come from affluent backgrounds!
6. The athletes featured on the Purple Bricks adverts come across as really unpleasant. Bit of a backfire.

What does everyone else think?

@Spacehairdresserandthecowboy

What does everyone else think?

I tbi I you were knee deep in a bottle of wine and having a weird random rant.

^This^

No other explanation for it

news.sky.com/story/tokyo-olympics-how-britains-taekwondo-athletes-went-from-training-at-asda-to-medal-success-in-japan-12365416

Those damn medal winners working in super markets to support themselves. I can’t bear them

In a world with the Kardashians but it's Olympic athletes that you object to?! That's piss poor.

The thing is not all Olympians are created equal. Some are drugs cheats, some are there in part because they come from privileged backgrounds (but have still put so.much hard work), a boxer today bit his opponent. However, others have over come huge disadvantages, made enormous sacrifices, come back from serious injury and won (or earned a medal). Others have lost but still deserve recognition for how far they came and what they did achieve. Derek Redmond has my respect, Laurel Hubbard doesn't. Like any random group of people there are nice ones and not so nice ones, lucky one and unlucky ones. There are always great stories behind some the athletes journeys and dismissing them all as pampered rich kids really misses the unique path that each and every competitor has taken to reach the games.

Those damn medal winners working in super markets to support themselves. I can’t bear them

That’s not what that article says? They were training in a facility within a supermarket before a state of the art facility opened in 2016. No one is working in a supermarket.

“ Dubbed "Aisle 57", GB Taekwondo's humble base was within an Asda superstore opposite Manchester City's stadium before their state-of-the-art national centre opened in 2016”

I thought that rich Olympians happened in Communist countries where a gold medal meant a pension for life or is that a trope?

I saw that the first ever gold medalist from the Philippines was awarded with $600k and 2 homes (the homes are from private companies)

www.cbsnews.com/news/hidilyn-diaz-philippines-olympic-weightlifting-gold-reward/

But I understand why this is a big deal and congratulations to her 👏

Back to Team GB- we should applaud people who balance real life and their training. For example Tom Daley has an A* and 2A at A-level and is openly gay when many athletes can not be so. There are more female Team GB competitors than male this Olympics and lots of role models who I'd rather my children look up to than reality tv contestants who have done nothing more than lounge around in a bikini this summer.

This popped up on my timeline.
Please don't ask about why she didn't stop in Greece but it shows determination in the face of adversity which is commendable.

Well the OP has certainly had her arse handed to her on a plate hasn't she?

Did you see the families of those amazing swimmers today and yesterday? Hardly living in multi million pound mansions are they? The sacrifices they've made for their kids is just incredible.

What a stupid, bitter, weird post. Glad pretty much everyone disagrees with you though eh?!

I love every minute of the Olympics and admire that dedication and focus that few of us possess. To be admired not pulled down.

AllTheSingleLadiess

Just incredible x

SOME OF US HAVE TO WORK FOR A LIVING!

Hilarious, your post really is quite weird, what do you think these people are doing?!

Your rant has really annoyed me.

They are the best in the country at their sport!!! In some cases, best in the world!!. YABVVU to resent them any joy and payment they get for it. I really don't understand the big chip on your shoulder and your reasoning is very off on all your points.

@Newbornandupwards

SOME OF US HAVE TO WORK FOR A LIVING!

Hilarious, your post really is quite weird, what do you think these people are doing?!

Your rant has really annoyed me.

Not all Olympians are professional as many are there at their own expense and sacrifice of all their non work time and energy to train, push and perfect their sporting potential.

Most only reach Olympic qualification levels but no realistic chance of a medal in their chosen discipline and will be forgotten about unless they reach the very pinnacle win a medal.

The personal return on investment from a very young age is super high risk with an invitation to compete but essentially there to make up numbers and archive personal targets unknown to most in their home nations.

I agree about the idolising... I personally don't think anybody should be idolised, but everything else in your post I disagree with.

The idolising though, makes me cringe. The people who do it seem a bit 'star struck' in general. I think you can appreciate and acknowledge the supreme sacrifices that some people make without turning into a fawning sycophant. Not all fans are like that but I think this is how we ended up with the pointless clapping of NHS, they needed better than that.

ResIpsaLoquiturInterAlia

Totally agree, I was quoting the OP post in bold just in case not clear, would hate anyone to think I thought that!

Lauren Price middle weight competing now, she comes from the Welsh valleys, drives a taxi at the weekends to earn some money, brought up by her grandparents, how could she not be inspiring!

@ Newbornandupwards

Go Lauren Price good luck and knock them out! Although boxing is not on my radar but I appreciate amateur Olympic boxing as it has been a successful platform for previous British Olympic Champions going professional for fame and fortune. I am sure most would not know about Lauren Price if not mentioned here unless it’s your sport or a local resident.

I was a bit surprised with Taekwondo British Welsh double Olympic champion Jade Jones losing out to Iranian Alizadeh Zenoorin of the (w̷o̷k̷e̷)̷ Olympic Refugee team. I am in amazement of the achievement of Charlotte Dujardin who equalled the most number of Olympic medals won by a British woman by claiming equestrian team dressage bronze in Tokyo.

Good luck Team GB! Well deserved and inspirational gold, silver and bronze fest!

Charlotte du Jardin! Wow! Bronze!!

You seem quite bitter & jealous. I like watching people who have put in years of effort and hard work succeeding. I honestly can’t imagine being so miserable that I get annoyed don’t the olympics

It's mad how many people are bitter about Olympians getting a tiny bit of recognition for their years of hard work, sacrifice and pain. I've seen people saying they shouldn't be celebrated for being genetically superior....WTF?

So many people love to make excuses for why they haven't achieved anything remarkable. "Oh, I don't have time to do sports, "I don't have time to write a novel", as if other people magically are given these things on a plate.

Lots of Olympians are nothing special in terms of genetics or luck, they are just willing to put in the work. There are loads of winter sports like luge that don't require much special talent. Why don't you go and start training for that, OP? Why don't you risk cracking your head open and having life changing injuries so you too can get glory and fame? Oh wait, you don't actually want to put the work in and risk anything, you just want a gold medal for sitting on the couch and moaning.

a problem in this country is that we may not necessarily identify and support sports people with the best talent

there are talent spotting schemes now though. I think Helen Glover was "spotted" actually as she was more of a runner to start with. We definitely need more investment in grass roots and more to the point, facilities. No more closing down athletics tracks and swimming pools, please!

And Greg Rutherford obviously had contacts but he has gone from athletics to winter sports and there was a cyclist who was a heptathlete and another cyclist who might have been a rower to start with?

(and someone mentioned the NSC at Crystal Palace a few pages back - the track is in an embarrassing state and it used to be a flagship venue for the equivalent of Diamond League events - so sad that it's been left to rot)

Rebecca Romero was the tower turned cyclist. There was also a TDF cyclist who used to be a ski jumper!

There is a well established Talent ID framework in the UK. Clubs and governing bodies play a big part, as do UK Sport who run national talent ID programmes for things like “tall sports”. There is also a programme helping athletes move from one sport to another, if they are burnt out from one sport but still think they have something to offer - eg athletics do have athletes who have successfully transferred to American Football.

Re grass roots facilities, it’s a tricky one. Areas will be given capital to fund the building of facilities like pools, velodromes, canoe runs etc. Where it breaks down is where the local council are tasked with the running and upkeep of the venue. A couple of years of council tax cuts later, and the venue becomes very expensive to run, the council can’t afford it, and either mothballs or closes the site or transfers the facilities to an external provider to run under contract (Manchester City Council have done this with Greenwich Leisure and standards have slipped massively). Some venues, like the national cycling centre, are now getting on and need serious refurbs to the roof, hearing, lighting, seating etc, and need to try to get more funding because the council (who still own the building) can’t afford the bill.

I competed (at a club level - nowhere near Olympic or national standard) a few years ago at an athletics stadium in wormwood scrubs. It looked like in hadnt had any maintenance or investment for years. (This was 3 or 4 years ago - it might have had a revamp )

Re talent sporting Taekwondo has used it's position as an Olympic sport to "poach" players from other MAs that are not part of the games and convert them to Taekwondo. Sports in which we have typically done well are able to back up that success with talent spotting, youth engagement, increased grass roots participation etc because they get a bigger slice of the funding pie and increased public awareness/interest. We are less good at picking out potential champs in events in which we don't have great track record but when you consider the range of sports that available there will never be the funding (or indeed the talent) to excel at everything - even the Chinese can't cover every sport and they has a vast population to scout from.

@Runningupthecurtains

Re talent sporting Taekwondo has used it's position as an Olympic sport to "poach" players from other MAs that are not part of the games and convert them to Taekwondo. Sports in which we have typically done well are able to back up that success with talent spotting, youth engagement, increased grass roots participation etc because they get a bigger slice of the funding pie and increased public awareness/interest. We are less good at picking out potential champs in events in which we don't have great track record but when you consider the range of sports that available there will never be the funding (or indeed the talent) to excel at everything - even the Chinese can't cover every sport and they has a vast population to scout from.

Bath uni has a talent spotting programme to find potential in some of the events not currently popular with GB athletes. Dd was asked to do it but was too worried they'd make her do bobsleigh 😂

@Bryonyshcmyony I don't think they would force her at gun point!
Things have certainly changed over the years - I'm late 40's and was a very tall child, my childhood was a world of no (ballet, gymnastics) but no-one every pointed me or my siblings at the many sports where height is an advantage.