By: Queen’s Medicine in Sport
This article attempts to answer one question: Does a greater amount of money and resources directed at athletes contribute to dominance in competition? The answer is yes. Increasing the financial investments in athletes directly correlates with improved performance through enhanced training facilities, advanced recovery, and individualized training programs designed to optimize mental and physical performance. These competitive edges created from scientific training can lead to significant advantages in international events such as the Olympics. The issue? That athletes from wealthier states, for the sole reason of the finances of their homeland, sustain measurable advantages in international competition. The scales, as we know them, are undoubtedly tilted toward those fortunate enough to be athletes from national wealth.
Touching briefly on the history of sports medicine, Hippocrates (considered the “father of medicine”) was one of the first to emphasize the importance of physical examination and medical treatment for Greek citizens and athletes. Moreover, Greece also cemented their roots in sports medicine through the establishment of gymnasiums and formalized physical education. These actions helped lay the groundwork for the future of sports medicine. Most notably, Greece created the Olympics – beginning as a Panhellenic festival in 776 BC it has since grown into the largest worldwide sporting event hosting games across 23 cities and 13 countries with sports medicine at its core.
Observed in the U.S., the country spent over $183M in “Athlete Excellence” programs in 2022 while preparing for the Olympic games. Alongside this, the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) provided “Elite Athlete Health Insurance” amounting to $10.8M. These coverages account for athlete stipends, coaching, sports science, and more. Their plethora of resources has allowed the U.S. to be the most successful country in terms of medals won at the Olympic games. This can be contrasted by smaller and developing countries spending a fraction of the Americans. This gap in spending could surely relate to the fact these countries typically win far less. Somalia, for example, is a smaller country rich in talent – evident by the achievements of marathon runner and four-time Olympic medalist Mohamad Farah. Despite the successes of individual athletes such as Farah, Somalian state funding for athletes struggle due to lacking resources. Somalia’s significantly smaller amount of athlete funding has resulted in them never win an Olympic medal, as athletes such as Mo Farah runs for ‘adopted countries’ with better funding, in his case, it is Great Britain. For context on the limits of Somalian funding, their Olympic team during the 2016 Rio Summer Games had zero private doctors, relying on an overworked public healthcare system with limited resources for the needs of their athletes. This highlights the disparity between countries that can provide additional support versus those who can’t.
The disparity in spending on athletes between states creates obvious ethical concerns. Wealthier states like the U.S. experience consistent success whenever the games occur, which, as this article argues, is due to their ability to leverage cutting-edge scientific advancements in sports medicine. Examples of such advancements include personalized recovery protocols (cryotherapy, compression therapy, and more), along with real time data tracking such as heart rate, blood oxygen levels, sleep and many more markers. Typically, less affluent countries cannot afford to invest in such treatments as some individual units can cost upwards of $50,000USD. As a result, competition is shifting from being purely about athletics, as originally intended by Olympic competition, to a combination of talent and access to resources.
Several measures could be implemented with the intention of “balancing the scale”. Firstly, access to all sports medicine resources should be available to all states regardless of financial standing. While the Olympic Committee provides funding to smaller countries, it is not enough to balance all the countries’ access to resources. By taking a portion of the revenue from selling tickets, food, accommodations for the Olympics, a fund could be created to level the playing field fostering fair competition. Moreover, the creation of a global fundraiser with shared profits for countries who need it most could be beneficial. This could be run on a donation basis or similarly taking a percentage of profits from selling Olympic branded goods. Secondly, as sports medicine technology advances rapidly, it’s essential to consistently review and develop clear regulatory guidelines. These would cover areas such as approved treatments, training programs, and other relevant practices that provide countries with a clear framework to ensure appropriate and ethical standards. Another concept that could be explored is the creation of a resource cap that would be established for Olympic athletes from all states, with it being the responsibility of the individual state to decide how to allocate their resources. Looking at established professional leagues such as the NBA or NFL, each team has an operating cap that they must stay within for player salary, support staff salary and facilities. Implementation of a cap such as this for Olympic teams could help smaller countries by limiting the spending of larger countries.
Olympic competition begins long before the starting gun sounds; it starts when an athlete picks up a weight for the first time or steps into an ice bath after an early workout, for all of these are carefully planned by sport scientists. Because of this, sports medicine is indispensable. Athletes need to be able to train at a high-level day-in and day-out, and without optimized recovery and specific training programs, the chance for injury or long-term damage increases astronomically. In all, this article has positioned that while increased spending on sports medicine is correlated to dominance, ensuring fairness through equal access is vital to preserve the integrity of competition. By leveling the playing field, balancing the scales, the Olympics can remain a testament to a humans’ athletic ability while fostering fair competition and drawing states together to stand behind their team.
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Image Source: adrian8_8, https://www.flickr.com/photos/26349479@N07/4354788542
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