ATHLETES around the world dream of winning an Olympic gold medal.
However, this dream comes at a cost very few are able to cover from personal finances.
Talent can only get you so far. Being great– and staying at that elite level – is a million-dollar expense.
The gold medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics has been valued at around US$810, but what is the cost of an athlete working towards winning that medal.
Trinidad and Tobago ended the Tokyo Games without a medal for the first time since the 1992 Barcelona Games.
The majority have shifted focus to Paris 2024 as the challenging three-year qualification journey is set to begin.
In Tokyo, more than 20 world records were broken, including three in cycling.
TT cyclist Nicholas Paul, who finished sixth in the men's sprint and 12th in the keirin, had an impressive Olympic debut.
Paul's flying 200m world record, achieved in Bolivia in 2019, remains intact.
Trinidad and Tobago has a world record holder!
However, Paul, similar to a number of TT Olympians, remains unsponsored.
[caption id="attachment_907067" align="alignnone" width="1024"] TT cycling team members, Njisane Phillip, left, and Nicholas Paul celebrate at the 2019 Pan Am Games in Lima, Peru. - AP[/caption]
The 22 year old, with gold medals at CAC Games and Pan Am Games, is geared to take the next step.
What does it cost an elite athlete or a world record holder to maintain his/her global ranking and perform at a level worthy of investment by corporate entities?
In TT, there are a few elite athletes who are currently sponsored and/or receive endorsements.
However, the pandemic continues to have adverse effects on the global economy forcing organisations to cut back on spending.
But the disappointment expressed because TT did not earn a medal should show companies that there is value in investing heavily in the nation’s top performers.
Paul, Kwesi Browne (ninth in the Olympic keirin), and Olympic road cyclist debutant Teniel Campbell continue to fly the flag high in cycling, following in the footsteps of Njisane Phillip, still riding at a high level, who was fourth in the men's sprint at the London Games.
Some of the major costs for an athlete seeking Olympic qualification stem from participating in qualifier events, which are on foreign soil.
But training, elite coaching, supplements, physiotherapists, dieticians, equipment and other necessities also contribute to building a potential Olympic medallist.
For TT's cyclists, approximately $150,000 was spent on equipment for each athlete ahead of the Games.
Fortunately, the cost of spending the past nine months at the World Cycling Centre (WCC) in Switzerland by Paul and Browne was offset by the International Olympic Committee’s Olympic Solidarity.
The aim of Olympic Solidarity is to provide assistance to all National Olympic Committees (NOCs) for athlete development programmes, in particular those with the gr
