Topic: Governmental Support For Amateur Sport

[Judas]

A N Y W A Y S . . . .

A possibly silly but serious question. Can the US not just BUY a gold medal athlete from a country that has one? All those star athletes in poor poor countries and not one would immigrate to the US for a killer salary, house, endorsements, fame, etc...??? Extreme idea perhaps, but how bad do they want to promote it in this country? Maybe if there could be found some serious funding for this sport on this continent that would be an avenue to explore? Can one import a National hero...??? Anything is possible, especially in America, with a creative spin. Or am i off on this one...???

Back to the topic, I would be against state support for weightlifting.  As much as we would like it, I don't think my neighbors should have to pay for my son's Elieko set or travel to national competitions.

While i dont want the government any further into our lives or pockets, you gotta admit, you right now are being fleeced for all kinds ov **** that is much worse than some weightlifting funding, even if for a few. At very least, government supporting sports is a healthy endeavor (in spirit at least) and may in some small way inspire more wheezing TV-addled slugs to do something athletic. Hell, maybe some would try it out simply because they would have a problem paying for something they're not getting use out ov. I know people like that...

I would much rather pay a tax that in some tiny way supports a weightlifter somewhere than one that pays for surgeries for the obese or golden parachutes for corrupt CEOs or better prisons for criminals or ANY sort ov middle Eastern military campaign.

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

Everybody has their favorite taxes, as long as it is someone else that pays them.

[Erik Blekeberg]

A possibly silly but serious question. Can the US not just BUY a gold medal athlete from a country that has one? All those star athletes in poor poor countries and not one would immigrate to the US for a killer salary, house, endorsements, fame, etc...??? Extreme idea perhaps, but how bad do they want to promote it in this country? Maybe if there could be found some serious funding for this sport on this continent that would be an avenue to explore? Can one import a National hero...??? Anything is possible, especially in America, with a creative spin. Or am i off on this one...???

I personally think we need a home spun hero. I think people need to believe that Americans can dominate. If they see some Bulgarian, Russian, Chinese etc. come over and win medals for us they will think we can't do it ourselves. I like the idea of John Broz right now that we need to stop caring about National level and think Internationally.

[dabrock]

Even if the US wanted to import talent it will get a lot harder to do that. Think about the fact that all the best Jamaican runners used to race for other countries but now Jamaica has developed it's own program. Other countries are working hard to recruit top talent from other countries so there will be huge competition for importing athletes as well as keeping them at home.

Definitely, developing the national talent pool to think about winning at the international level is the way to go.

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

Currently, I believe it takes 8 years to become a US citizen. That would likely put a dent in their career.

[dabrock]

Not sure how long it would take but athletes have been known to get "special" considerations. Funny how that works.

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

In America? I don't think so but anything is possible I suppose. The citizenship requirement is pretty firm from my understanding however.

[dabrock]

I found this from 2007 so not sure if the rules changed recently but seems that athletes are still jump queue. I met a couple college student athletes while I was living in the states that were fast tracked so I've seen it happen personally. I wasn't able to find specific cases but they are usually confidential so it's hard to say what extent it happens. I would certainly applaud the US government if they held firm against fast tracking athletes since its common in a lot of other countries.

http://www.slate.com/id/2168175/