Money As A Barrier To The Olympics

And how some athletes managed to high-jump over that bar

OK, it could just be that anything makes me cry these days, because hormones — even the mediocre “Fight Song” video had me in tears the first time I saw it — but the stories about Olympians whose families were not well-off and had to sacrifice so that their talented children could advance in their various fields have had me bawling. The Olympics aren’t a pure meritocracy, after all. Even supremely gifted young people need coaching, training, lessons, and some measure of peace and stability in their home lives so that they can prioritize practice. So it’s not a coincidence that rich countries win more medals. It’s almost amazing that any non-rich person can seriously compete.

Amazing enough that the stories are liable to make me dissolve into a puddle a la the Wicked Witch of the West.

Fig. 1: Charlotte Dujardin, the Englishwoman competing in dressage (that’s pronounced “dress-ahge,” to rhyme with “corsage”), via the New Yorker

“Literally all our money went on it,” Dujardin’s father, Ian, told me. “All of it.” Ian ran a packaging company, and in 1992, when Dujardin was seven, he won a large contract to wrap up mirrors. He spent fifty thousand dollars on a show pony for his daughters. But by the summer of 1999 another packaging deal had gone badly wrong. “It pulled everything down,” Jane said. “Our house, our home, our everything.” The Dujardins had to sell the show pony, and the horse box.

As Jane watched her daughter ride, she felt both joy and dread. It was obvious that Dujardin should pursue dressage. There was just no way to afford it. Even within the expensive world of equestrian sport, dressage stands apart for the aristocracy of its ideals and the wealth of its participants. Ann Romney sent a horse to the 2012 Games. In 2008, Denmark was represented by Princess Nathalie, of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg. Élite foals cost as much as sixty thousand dollars; medal-winning horses go for millions; the expenses of taking part are fantastic; and the prize money is pitiful. The careers of top riders can last decades, so the best horses and the richest benefactors have a way of gravitating to them, concentrating the glory of dressage like the blood of the Hapsburgs. “It’s a vicious circle,” Astrid Appels, the editor of Eurodressage.com, one of the sport’s leading Web sites, told me. “The weak in the wallet can often not afford competing at international level.”

Why do I care about a sport so fancy-pants, so froufrou, that one paragraph about it name-checks Ann Romney, Princess Nathalie of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg, and the Hapsburgs? I cannot say. The heart wants it wants, and in the case of this bizarrely absorbing story, it wants to root for the talented and dedicated Dujardin to overcome the obstacle of being only upper-middle-class as she tries to compete against actual landed gentry.

Fig. 2: Nicole’s interview with diver Laura Ryan, via Medium

‘Never give up just because of your situation or what anybody else says’

When Ryan saw Wilkinson dive off the 10 meter platform, she turned to her dad and said “Hey Dad, I think I can do that. I want to try diving.”

Her dad laughed. “Good luck with that.” They lived in Elk River, Minnesota, and the local pool only had a low diving board, not the high board required to train as a serious diver. But Ryan was adamant that she wanted to dive. “It was kind of an immediate decision that that’s what I wanted to do.” … “I was able to compete because my mom was willing to homeschool me and stop working,” Ryan explained.

Her mom gave up her career so that her daughter could have one! Sob.

Fig. 3: Yusra Mardini, the swimmer and Syrian-in-exile who is participating as part of the first-ever refugee team, via the Independent.

Mardini’s story deserves as many tears as anyone is willing to shed over it. All Olympians have to be determined, resourceful, and resilient, but the feat of strength this teenager performed just to make her way to Europe is worthy of several medals:

She and her sister are responsible for helping to save the lives of 20 people, including their own, after jumping off their sinking dinghy into the Aegean Sea and pushing their boat to land. …

Thirty minutes after setting off from Turkey, the motor on their boat, which was meant for six people but carrying 20, began to fail. Most of those on board it could not swim. With no other alternative, Mardini, Sarah and two strong swimmers jumped into the sea and swam for three hours in open water to stop their dinghy from capsizing, eventually reaching Lesbos.

“We were the only four who knew how to swim,” she said of the experience. “I had one hand with the rope attached to the boat as I moved my two legs and one arm. It was three and half hours in cold water. Your body is almost like … done. I don’t know if I can describe that.”

I can’t describe it either, but I can blubber about it. In this case at least I can cry proudly.

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