|
Post by Miranda on Oct 9, 2019 20:32:43 GMT
I always thought it was funded through college.
|
|
|
Post by yankee on Oct 9, 2019 20:50:48 GMT
Depending on the sport a lot of the athletes can be very self-sufficient, maybe be sponsored by fund raising their home town. Then, once they make the national team their expenses are comped as part of the national team through mostly corporate sponsorship.
The figure skaters are a prime example. There was recently a film about the Tonya Harding / Nancy Kerrigan scandal.
In the film you get to see Tonya Harding living in a trailer park, her mother hand stitching her skating outfits, beg, borrowing or stealing money to pay for coaches and ice time and entering competitions until she finally made the national team.
Even Nancy Kerrigan was no silver spooner. Her dad worked three jobs and drove the Zamboni machine at a local skate rink to get her free ice time.
On the other side of the coin you have the women's basketball team, they all come to the national team from playing at college (where they had free scholarships) and the men's team are all NBA stars (who also had free college scholarships and are gazzillionaires). So no real funding needed in the lead up to either of those squads.
The track and field athletes are all highly dependent on shoe contracts.
Snow skiers funded by the ski equipment manufacturers. They always make sure to be interviewed with their skis standing next to them with the logo prominently displayed so that the brand gets that free TV advert.
So where the funding comes from really comes down to the sport.
|
|
|
Post by Miranda on Oct 9, 2019 21:26:58 GMT
Ah, interesting. Although in some ways similar to here. Football and rugby start at school and if you are really talented you can go from small child to professional footballer earning a gazillion pounds without much outlay yourself. Same with cricket, I think. Other sports use to really struggle until the funding. But that is also heavily dependent on results. You can get a lot of money but if you don't get the results expected of you, then it gets cut there and then.
For instance, figure skating here is a minority sport even though we've had one or two champions in our time. But they have tended to be both exceptionally talented and lucky to be in the right place at the right time. Over the years we've lost a lot of skating rinks and we don't have great coaches. So although we have good skaters, they don't get the training they need to be top-class.
|
|
|
Post by yankee on Oct 10, 2019 13:29:48 GMT
That makes 100% sense. Young athletes may have the interest but if they don't have the venue to participate the sport wont grow.
I guess that is why we have a leg up in skating. Ice hockey is enormously popular in the US so there are rinks everywhere. When games aren't on the rinks are open to free skates, people on dates, group beginner figure skating lessons, birthday parties etc.
If a skater shows promise and starts private lessons with a proper coach they likely rent out time at the rink so they have it all to themselves which might be in in the middle of the night or wee hours of the morning. As a result a number of rinks are open 24 hours a day.
|
|
|
Post by Miranda on Oct 11, 2019 17:55:45 GMT
The BBC are taking their time putting the Men's All-around on iPlayer. It's been over an hour and it's still not available.
|
|
|
Post by marion on Oct 12, 2019 13:25:40 GMT
Just noticed a channel change. Coverage starts on BBC1 at 14.45 today, then switches to BBC2 at 17.30. SFAIK it is just on BBC2 tomorrow from 11.30.
|
|
|
Post by Miranda on Oct 12, 2019 13:39:53 GMT
They still haven't put yesterday's on the iPlayer yet! I shall be out today so hopefully it will all be sorted by the time I get in.
|
|
|
Post by marion on Oct 12, 2019 15:18:11 GMT
Sometimes it is hard to find stuff on iplayer, I think. I remember when the diving (or was it skating? Something minority anyway) was on and in the end I could only find it in the A-Z listings; nothing on the sport home page at all.
|
|
|
Post by yankee on Oct 14, 2019 16:59:28 GMT
Congratulations to team Great Britain on your third place in the medals table.
Your men did you proud with 2 golds in the individual disciplines and your women a silver and bronze.
Simone Biles, what can you say, leads her team to gold in the team competition, takes home gold in the individual all-around and gold in 4 of the 5 individual disciplines. She was pretty dominant. She might well retire now and leave on top.
Our men where shut out though.
|
|
|
Post by marion on Oct 14, 2019 18:57:03 GMT
We did a lot better in the individual after that team event, I thought. It was also nice to see people from so many different countries. I didnt see many US men on the coverage we got here except for Sam Makuluk (sp?) who seemed full of promise but just didnt nail it on the night. Simone Biles was excellent I thought. I mean it is a bit of a shame for competition when one person is so dominant, but crikey she is good.
|
|
|
Post by Miranda on Oct 14, 2019 19:09:34 GMT
What medals did our boys get?
|
|
|
Post by Miranda on Oct 14, 2019 19:09:57 GMT
And how did Beckie Downie do?
|
|
|
Post by yankee on Oct 14, 2019 19:17:27 GMT
Gold in pommel and bars ![t2007](http://yoursmiles.org/tsmile/rulez/t2007.gif)
|
|
|
Post by Miranda on Oct 14, 2019 19:18:45 GMT
Oh cool! Wasn't expecting those. Especially the high bar.
|
|
|
Post by yankee on Oct 14, 2019 19:34:05 GMT
I think it was the parallel bars sorry I should have specified! ![:)](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/smiley.png)
|
|