Our Precious Gold Medals

Australia loves it's sporting heroes. But I think they sometimes deserve to have their egos pricked every now and then.

With the Tibet and other human rights issues spurring some people to suggest a boycott of the Olympic Games:

Swimming legend to boycott Olympics

some Australian sports "stars" won't have a bar of it:

Hackett dismisses Olympics boycott

It's interesting that these people, who are heavily subsidised by (our) public money to swim up and down a pool all day easily dismiss the political protests of their fellow Australians.

If they financed themselves solely using their own money, then they can do whatever they want. But, according to this report:

Olympic medals or long life: what’s the bottom line?

Australia spent $280 million on its athletes during the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Each medal cost $4.82 million!

The medals are not the only benefits that athletes can receive. They get lucrative sponsorship deals and jump to the head of the line for plum jobs in the sports media.

I'd like to see athletes self-finance their activities more. Maybe they should contribute using schemes such as those that exists for tertiary education in Australia (HECS/HELP)? The money raised could go to helping the underprivileged or into the general health system. Isn't it ironic that at a time when Australia performs so well in international sport, the country is going through an unprecedented obesity epidemic.