Saw this statistic.
China spent $1 billion dollars on athlete funding for the 2008 olympics. All of it from the government.
USA spent $150 million. Most of which from private funding.
China had 649 athletes in the games. Works out to $1.5 million for each athlete.
USA had 663 athletes in the games. Works out to $226,244 for each athlete.
Quite an achievement if you look at it from the financial perspective.
Indeed.
China threw an enourmous amount of resources at this. Of course you will never get a number from the Games Organizers, the total bill for the two weeks may be close to $50 billion!! That’s three times more than any other games has spent.
Hang on for a second here…despite the facade that you see in Beijing, China remains a poor country overall. Most of these athletes would have limited to zero chance of developing as athletes without the government doing it. Parents and private sector, are generally not in a position to fund the development of athletes. Families in China do not have six figure incomes to send kids to sport. So if you roll up the parental+corporate funding in the US, plus the government funding, vs what is arguably 100% government funding in China, it is probably not far from being pretty even.
Dev
Not that I think the number of medals a ‘country’ wins has any significance (how can a country win anything when a country is not competing, athletes are?), however, how about this for a ranking formula?
Rank = Medals won/(Population of country x (personal+corporate+political funding))
To get to the Olympics takes good genes and lots of money for training and facilities to train in. Better genes can offset some of the other costs, and the bigger the country, the more chance of having really special individuals in your population.
I enjoy watching some of the best athletes in the world compete in a celebration of sport. Period. Can any of us say who is more deserving of the medal? We can only say who won (at least in the empirical sports that is…) I think if we were familiar with the back story of any of the athletes in the competition, we could make a good argument that that athlete most deserved the medal. But to declare who is best based on a single competition held every four years? And by extension what country ‘won’ the games? That is just silly talk for couch potatoes with a remote control and a computer keyboard.
Amazing statistic. Especially when one considers that obviously one can live much cheaper in China.
Then do the Olympics in the US and you will flip the numbers “invested” in the athletes.
It is perfectly normal (expecially when you are a powerhouse like China, USA, Russia, etc…)
Fred.
Saw this statistic.
China spent $1 billion dollars on athlete funding for the 2008 olympics. All of it from the government.
USA spent $150 million. Most of which from private funding.
China had 649 athletes in the games. Works out to $1.5 million for each athlete.
USA had 663 athletes in the games. Works out to $226,244 for each athlete.
Quite an achievement if you look at it from the financial perspective.
A great statistic… but clearly bullshit… the USOC budget alone in the last Olympic cycle was $600m. God knows what the athlete funding from within the college systems is, then you have all the private sponsorship as well.
Being that China IS a poor country makes it even more astounding that $1 billion was invested in the athletes alone.
Imagine if the money was invested into the poor of that ocuntry.
Saw this statistic.
China spent $1 billion dollars on athlete funding for the 2008 olympics. All of it from the government.
USA spent $150 million. Most of which from private funding.
China had 649 athletes in the games. Works out to $1.5 million for each athlete.
USA had 663 athletes in the games. Works out to $226,244 for each athlete.
Quite an achievement if you look at it from the financial perspective.
Do as many of the Chinese athletes get endorsement money and pro salaries as the USA athletes? I honestly don’t know.
Well considering that the population of China is around 1.3 Billion or so right now, that would be the equivalent of $0.77 per person. I don’t know, but I’m pretty sure that the prestige from the games, the boost to international views of China and the increased business more than makes up for the equivalent of spending 77 cents per person.
How about the USA spending ITS money on the poor instead of the way we waste money on wars and sports?
Imagine if the money was invested into the poor of **our **country.
Then do the Olympics in the US and you will flip the numbers “invested” in the athletes.
It is perfectly normal (expecially when you are a powerhouse like China, USA, Russia, etc…)
Fred.
Actually the US spends almost NO money on their athletes since they get an desastrous amount of money from the olympic movement, due to a great ever lasting contract they negotiated back in the '80s. In fact money that belongs to athletes and olympic movements from all over the world… now it makes the US government easy not to spend money on their athletes.
Your math is flawed in several ways. Fisrt off, CHina did not just support those in the games, there are 100’s more for every one that qualifies. I’m sure that number is for the entire program, not just for the few that made it to the games.
As someone pointed out, the money the us athletes gets is waaaaay more than you put up there. College scholarships, USOC money, and the largest amount, pro deals. What does Kobe make a year??? Dwarfs what the Chinese put out, although they do have one guy in the NBA. Phelps was making millions before the games, maybe 100’s of millions until the next games…
Doesn’t much matter much where the money comes from, it all spends the same if you are an athlete in training, so trying to make the Chinese athletes look like overpaid government pros, and the Americans a bunch of paupers, is just ridiculous…
Does anyone hold the Olympics to make money during the Olympics? Hell no…The only Olympics I have ever herd someone say “We’re here to turn a profit” was Salt Lake City and those were run by Mitt “It’s not a cult” Romney.
Bob
I think that those numbers are pretty misleading at best. By the quick math the US Redeem team is Netting about $300 million a year in salary and endorsments. True none of that comes from my tax dollars, but the economy in China is vastly different than it is here.
I shutter to think about the amount of money that is actually invested in US athletics to produce the 633 athletes you mentioned. Shawn Johson’s parents were on their third mortgage paying for gymnastics and I’m sure that si the tip of the iceberg. True there is a private economy in China, but the sports are still state sponsored, I think that if you relly took a deeper lookm the $$'s spent in the US far outweigh those spent in China. Pluse most athletes that go to the games earn a better life for themselves and their families - nothing wrong with that.