Three-quarters of the nearly 600 American athletes lining up for action at the Paris Olympics honed their skills playing college sports in the United States.It'
"I think everybody's going to have to make choices," NCAA President Charlie Baker told The Associated Press in an interview a few hours before the opening ceremony. He planned to go to field hockey, volleyball, swimming and gymnastics while in Paris.
Admittedly I"m taking the quote of of contexts. The quote was in referencing to what sports schools will support now that they are paying players but it still works for my larger point.
"I think everybody's going to have to make choices," NCAA President Charlie Baker told The Associated Press in an interview a few hours before the opening ceremony. He planned to go to field hockey, volleyball, swimming and gymnastics while in Paris.
Admittedly I"m taking the quote of of contexts. The quote was in referencing to what sports schools will support now that they are paying players but it still works for my larger point.
This article is highly relevant to the discussions in other threads about the future of track and XC in the NCAA. The success the US has had in the Olympics over the years is almost entirely dependent on the fact that we develop so many world class athletes through our collegiate system. Outside of college, the US has no real development system for Olympic sports. This is why we get thumped by countries like China who actually have a system for developing Olympic level athletes in all those sports that the US colleges and Universities don't offer.
So with that in mind what is the future of US track and field at the Olympics if we see a significant cutback at the college level? Probably not great.
"I think everybody's going to have to make choices," NCAA President Charlie Baker told The Associated Press in an interview a few hours before the opening ceremony. He planned to go to field hockey, volleyball, swimming and gymnastics while in Paris.
Admittedly I"m taking the quote of of contexts. The quote was in referencing to what sports schools will support now that they are paying players but it still works for my larger point.
This article is highly relevant to the discussions in other threads about the future of track and XC in the NCAA. The success the US has had in the Olympics over the years is almost entirely dependent on the fact that we develop so many world class athletes through our collegiate system. Outside of college, the US has no real development system for Olympic sports. This is why we get thumped by countries like China who actually have a system for developing Olympic level athletes in all those sports that the US colleges and Universities don't offer.
So with that in mind what is the future of US track and field at the Olympics if we see a significant cutback at the college level? Probably not great.
First, taking a quote out of context is poor form
Second, lots of sports don't need the college system. Many swimmers did not swim in college. A few track athletes did not. Gymnastics does fine and the colleges are not producing the top women.
Not sure I would use China as my standard here, but yes other countries have developed systems and sometimes they send the athletes to the US.
So if all Olympic sports disappeared from college tomorrow, it appears a lot of other countries would suffer since 800 athletes from other countries competed for US colleges. We are rich enough that we could absorb the loss after an ugly period. It might inspire funding to go more directly to the athletes not through the USOPC (that takes a big cut for its very, very large staff). It might inspire a form of government funding (which I am hesitant to advocate for) from lottery or gambling revenue (a lot of European countries fund their sports that way).
Help us build the best running shoe review site for a chance to win a LetsRun t-shirt.Help us build the best running shoe review site for a chance to win one of 10 LetsRun t-shirts.
