Olympic Sized Thoughts

Higher Faster Stronger or just Brainier

Henry Carr story

Henry Carr once admitted: “Even when one becomes the best, it’s a deception. Why? Because it’s not lasting, nor really satisfying. Stars are soon replaced and generally forgotten.”

In 2010, I used to see him outside the MARTA Five Points station in downtown Atlanta. He was distributing Watchtower - the main publication of Jehovah's Witnesses. 

Who is he, you ask? He was the Number One sprinter in the World for three years. He won two golds at the Tokyo Olympics. No, not the more recent one but the previous one. The same 1964 games made the "Flying Sikh" famous in India. He came in fourth. But his timing remained the fastest in India for the next four decades.

Baldy Castillo coached Carr at ASU and in 1995 Castillo declared that Carr was "the best track man I ever coached. If he were running today, he'd be a millionaire."

Where is the talent at the highest level?

Becoming an Olympic Gold Medalist is a rare thing. But, the distribution of winners is very uneven. 

Consider this striking fact: Since the inception of modern Olympics, India has won exactly ten gold medals (eight of them are in field hockey). The town of Bekoji (Boqqojjii in Amharic) has produced ten Olympic Gold medalists in the past thirty years - six of them women. The population of that town: 17,000.

Ethiopia, where that town is located, is not exactly a rich country. So, high income does not explain this extraordinary phenomenon. Nor does the altitude. There are other areas around the world, from Mexico to Chile to Lesotho to Nepal, that have more people living at that altitude, but none have matched Bekoji.

The State Factor

For decades, there has been a barrier between professionals not being able to participate in the Olympics. It is a dumb policy. You can get the State to offer you all the money and help you need to train. But it does not count as "sponsorship". But, god forbid, you get a *private* company to help, you become a "professional" and get disqualified.

Consider this example:  Jim Thorpe was stripped of his gold medals in the decathlon and pentathlon after it was learned that he had played professional minor league baseball three years earlier.

This was in 1912. [Not a typo.]

Not surprisingly, the USSR and East Germany have dominated the Olympics for years.

They also had another weapon up their sleeves: Chemistry.

Only after the fall of the Berlin Wall did we find the extent to which these countries have relied on drugs. Those drugs have ruined countless lives. Nandrolone *may* boost your performance in the field temporarily but it *would* reduce your performance in bed. There is that tradeoff.

Many suspect that China uses chemistry at such a sophisticated level, the standard techniques are not able to catch them.

Incentives for that elusive Olympic Gold

Rich countries offer cash for winners. Italy offered over $200,000. Singapore has a standing offer of a million (Sing) dollars. But, like the lottery organizers, they know, there will hardly be any taker. After all, in the entire history of Singapore, there has been exactly one Olympic Gold Medal winner - Joseph Schooling. [To be fair, Singapore now offers a million for all medal winners.]

There is a myth that American Olympic legends are fabulously wealthy. Sure, Michael Phelps has a net worth of $100 million and the lifetime sponsorship of Simone Biles is worth $20 million. But, they are the rare ones. 

Show me the money: Administrator v athlete

There was a large-scale survey of athletes and the executives who manage them during 2018-2022. Here are the results.

Executive highlight: A quarter of top level athletes have below poverty income.

You might argue that the administrators are older individuals and hence earn more. But, they are not exactly ‘high performance’ in their own fields unlike the elite athletes. They are just faceless (mostly) men in gray suits. 

Be A Math Olympian

It does not sound sexy at all. You do not get to run around a field with thousands cheering you holding your medal. But those fleeting glories pass quickly. And you are always one big injury away from obscurity for the rest of your life.

Being in the Math Olympiad is another matter. I tracked two dozen such individuals from India. Most of them are working in Google/Microsoft/Facebook earning a quarter of a million dollars a year. Others have become academics - which may not pay top dollars, but it is a cushy job with a comfortable, satisfying life. [Trust me, I know - been there - done that.]

Executive warning: You can neither decide to become an Olympian just because you would like to. Nor can you become a Math Olympian just because. You have to have talent - a lot of it - in either. But, the Math Olympians, on the average, end up having a higher lifetime income.

Postscript

Laura Zeng has done the right thing. She became an Olympian, took a deferred admission to Yale, and then went back to study cognitive science. She has a bright future.

What NOT to do: Never get your ego in the way.