Olympic value?

[skateflo]

I was just pondering the real value of an Olympic win in the past 20 years to USA skaters. With all the recent turmoil of the ISU, the USFS, etc., has it really been worth it to participate in the Olympics? Has it really given our skaters anything of substance after they leave skating to get on with their lives? Yes, they can always say they were an Olympic medalist, but has it really made that much difference in their lives? Has the reason skaters keep skating, in spite of the judging mishaps, make them better people, opened doors that would have remained closed in their chosen fields, provided monetary rewards to set them for life?

Would our skaters continue their paths to such a high level of expertise if the Olympics did not exist for skating anymore? Have their personal goals/reasons to keep incurring debt and bodily injury changed over time?

I remember some discussion several years ago about the young and aspiring skaters naming monetary reward as one of their top reasons to keep skating. Is this the real goal or more a reflection of how our society has changed? Is it a cultural thing? Is this what we want for our young people, our future leaders?

Just pondering in the lull before Worlds.........

[Samskate]

I would say that for some US skaters (Boitano, Yamaguchi, Hamilton to name a few) winning Olympic gold medals has definitely paid off and enabled them to make a career of something they seem to love to do. For others, not as much so.

[fadedstardust]

I don't think money is what drives skaters to be skaters, not at ALL, and I have never encountered an elite that felt that way (coaches yes, skaters no) you just wouldn't be successful if that was your main motivation. I think Olympic gold still means Olympic gold. It doesn't have the stigma it used to have, but that is the skaters' faults as much as anybody else- if you're going to have the past Olympic champions (Tara, Sarah, Yagudin, Stojko) retire very soon (or right away) after they win, whether there's injury involved or not, then they disappear from the scene, and so does the medal, kind of. There's no visibility or dignity about it, what with Tara and her pseudo-acting career and Sarah trying to say she wants to defend her titled even though she can't even land triples 3 years after her win anymore, etc, etc... It's as much the skaters' fault for not respecting the honor of what the Olympic medal means and carrying that on, as much as it is the ISU's fault for being warped and lessening the meaning of winning by allowing so much cheating.

I think skaters will always be motivated by Olympic gold, always. And yes, I think that IF they know how, they can be set for life in light of that. Coaching pays extremely well, and you don't have to be an OLY winner to rake up students with your name, a National winner will do. They can make a lot of money on endorsements, tours, coaching, Grand Prix series and cheesefests, and anyway, to be a skater these days you have to start out with a well-off family to support the costs, so I wouldn't be too worried. Not to mention that OLY winners (even National winners) get put into envelopes that provide them with funds to pay for their training and travelling, so by that point nothing comes out of pocket.

I think skaters will always strive for OLY gold, if it went away I think skating would die out because that would be an ultimate blow to the sport, basically saying it isn't a sport anymore. I also think SOME skaters keep skating because the USFS pays for it and they've done it all their lives and wouldn't know what to do with themselves otherwise. Those are the ones that hang around in the top ten but never quite make it, and yes, those skaters might have problems later on, but, I wouldn't blame it on skating, and even less on the ISU.