Olympics

[UteFanatic]

I don’t like the winter Olympics nearly as much as the summer, but I’m beginning to get annoyed at how badly the U.S. is doing relative to other countries. 

How does a country with as many resources as us do this poorly? Many of the gold medallists of other countries live and train in the U.S. They use U.S. facilities, and are coached by Americans.

What the hell is going on?

[UteFanatic]

But we did sweep the snowboard slopestyle and halfpipe events, so that was cool.

[Tony (admin)]

Yeah and if they had pot smoking as an event we’d win that too.

[EagleMountainUte]

The Dutch would sweep that event. 

[Tony (admin)]

Norweigians are born with skis on, so that’s tough to beat.

[PlainsUte]

See also Austria and Liechtenstien, but downhill skis. Canada: ice skates.

Haven’t people from countries like Austria dominated World Cup downhill events over time?   Similarly for Norway with skinny skis and ski jumping.

With all the guns in this country why hasn’t the US been competitive in biathalon? 😉

[Puget Ute]

Our own ski team members have to raise their own funds to train and attend events. That is the reason Andy Phillips quit the team and played football to get a scholarship. As I understand it, most other countries get significant funding from government sources, while US Ski Team is funded through donations, fundraisers, and sponsors, and ski team members themselves.

[Utah]

Funding. That is 100% the reason why. To compete/train/participate in the Winter Olympics you have to have some serious cash. 

And as our middle class gets smaller and smaller, our pool of athletes shrinks as well. 

So, until we fund these sports through government or through getting the middle class back (which ironically, is through government as well), this will continue. 

[gUrthBrooks]

It’s through capitalism my friend. No economic structure has ever raised people out of poverty excep for capitalism. Proven fact. Shrink down the government, shrink the regulations, let people be entrepreneurs and keep more of their money. 

[gUrthBrooks]

Fact: capitalism is the only economic infrastructure in all recorded History to raise large groups of people out of poverty. The. Only. One.