The Winter Olympics are full of entitlement and leisure class athletes

[superpatriotman]

Clearly there are exceptions, but almost to a person, every competitor is a wealthy silver-spooner.

At least the Summer games provide some sports for those not born or privilege.

Prove me wrong.

[JT45242]

1. Biathlon and x country skiingis often military or ex military from cold places

Hockey outside the US is not a privilege sport as many club teams hand down equipment.

But figure skating, snow boarding, bobsled, etc take huge bucks either from the person or the government.

[sir pball]

3. I would hardly call downhill sports (snowboarding/skiing) "elitist".

No, they aren't "buy a basketball and go to the city court" cheap by any means, but they're hardly polo or motorsports or yacht racing…plenty of non-millionaires hit the slopes every winter

Now, to get to an Olympic level is a different story, it does take a hefty chunk of change to have the free time and coaching infrastructure for that, but the same applies to any sport, right down to running or ping-pong.

[JT45242]

7. Day passes at skiing resorts are crazy expensive...throw in gear

Like golf...you have to look at how much u have to pay to practice to get good.

Then there is all the travel costs if you live outside the rocky mountain area

[sir pball]

11. It certainly does not need to be that expensive.

Day passes are…yes, they are wildly overpriced, but nobody who's serious, about getting good or just having fun, buys one. Season passes are a MUCH better deal, a weekday pass at Sugarloaf in Maine is $769. Not dirt cheap, but not unaffordable for a lot of people. Gear is a non-issue unless you have to have the newest, shiniest toys…I have a perfectly serviceable set of used boots and skis that I got for

[PJMcK]

2. Agreed

I stopped watching the Olympics years ago. They are all professional athletes because they have to be in order to survive and train. That commercialism doesn’t interest me.

Further, the organizers almost always fail spectacularly from a financial perspective. Too often, the expensive infrastructure becomes a waste once the Games are over.

Just my opinion.

[rampartd]

4. the nordic skiing events generally highlight warfare skills

the biathlon more so, perhaps the ski jump less.

[edhopper]

5. You probably have to be at least

Middle Class to pursue most of these sports.
But so what? They are dedicated athletes who put their whole life into being as good as they can be.
And for the most part, most will never get rich doing it. All those athletes fro all those countries are there to compete.
Why does their background matter?

And you don't need to be privileged to Curl.

[sir pball]

12. Realistically you have to be middle class to pursue any non-major-league sport.

Yes, if you're good at one of the big pro-league sports (e.g. basketball/baseball/football) you can get the support you need without having to pay via the HS->college->pro pipeline, but for pretty much any other sport you need to have the resources to make training an unpaid (or worse yet, a paying-for) full-time job. It takes just as much time and effort to be a good runner or tennis player, but in a bit of a paradox, you can't make a living off of it until you've proven yourself top-tier, on your own time and your own dime.

[BannonsLiver]

6. And? So what?

[oberle]

8. Is there a rule that all sports

have to include everyone?

[MineralMan]

9. Then I Suggest You Not Watch the Winter Olympics.

Simple, eh?

[electric_blue68]

30. Snort!

[mysteryowl]

10. Where are you getting this information?

[obamanut2012]

13. You are wrong, on both counts

[Johonny]

14. For years it was design to keep the working class

From competing...

[tinrobot]

15. Curling is expensive? Speed skating? Hockey?

Plenty of winter sports that don't require figure-skating levels of income to compete.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

22. Hockey is definitely expensive.

[sir pball]

26. Yes, it's a couple of thousands of dollars a year.

Which isn't "cheap", not like bringing a basketball down to the city court or taking a soccer ball to the city field.

But in terms of equipment-intensive sports…I know a few hockey moms, it's in the 1-3k a year tier. No, not low-income affordable, but a dedicated lower middle class family (the girl I got that number from works at a grocery store) it's not out of reach.

Skiing is about the same, going with a weekday season pass to a local resort and used gear it's roughly the same.

Neither are things low income folx can do, for sure (which is probably why the HS->college->NFL/NBA pipeline is so appealing) but they're hardly sports that need a five-figure investment.

[MichMan]

37. A pair of quality ice skates isn't any more expensive than a pair of top name brand basketball shoes

With the huge popularity of youth hockey in all age ranges, affordable used hockey gear is always available as kids grow out of it.

The gear needed for Hockey (skates, pads, helmet, jersey/pants, stick and puck), seems about the same as what is needed in Football (cleats, pads, helmet, jersey/pants, ball)

[MagickMuffin]

39. Figure Skating has athletes who can't afford their costumes

They rely on their communities to help with fundraising.

Todd Eldredge was one such person. I'm sure there are others.

[themaguffin]

16. Ok

[Celerity]

17. Disagree. nt

[Deep State Witch]

18. Bryan Sosoo - Bobsled

From my town, Laurel, MD. At least middle class - enough to go to college on a track scholarship.

https://www.teamusa.com/profiles/bryan-sosoo

Bryan Sosoo grew up in Laurel, Maryland, and in high school was the Maryland state champ in the 55-meter and triple jump. Sosoo attended Monmouth University, where he set the school record and won three conference titles in the 60m.

After graduation, Sosoo continued his track and field career, competing internationally for Ghana until 2024, when he made the switch to bobsled and joined the U.S. national team.

Sosoo would make his IBSF World Cup debut to begin the 2025-26 season and would be named to his first Olympic team for the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026.

[Igel]

19. Ah. I'm happy to find out that Simon Biles was born into the lap of luxury.

Born with a silver spoon leading to her bourgeois and upper-crust early life.

Really?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simone_Biles

Serena and Venus Williams started off in Lynnwood, CA--not exactly Holmby Hills. Their father was a tennis player and coach, and his family were sharecroppers. Truly the Rockefellers and Pritzkers there. Can't get a more privileged upbringing than that. Except for the wise move to upscale Compton. Their achievements came from inborn ability, skills resulting from training and practice--and that took investment of time, effort, and a lot of money. Can't watch a youtube video or read "The Inner Game of Tennis" bought used for that.

How's this? Let's have top NFL, NBA, NHL athletes--as well as Taylor Swift, Bad Bunny, and other singers--work 40+ hours a week in working class jobs. Bad Bunny can run an excavator. Taylor Swift, she can be a high school music teacher. Billy Eilish can be a greeter at Walmart or something. The athletes? They can go and coach high school or middle school, full time jobs + a lot of extra time in after school practice and on weekends. Granted, in TX they get June off, but practice resumes in July (same for things like band).

You want to be a top athlete, your job is training to be an athlete. You are a top athlete, your job is to continue to train to be at the top of your game. Maybe you get paid; maybe you get sponsorships; maybe you do what a lot of kids do to break into the field, you bust your butt in hopes of a payday. Dak Prescott may have been born wealthy or not, but to keep in shape for what he does requires time that a 40-hour plus a week job, with the usual dropping of kids off and picking them up, doing dishes and vacuuming and mowing the yard just wouldn't allow.

Does he deserve his multi-million dollar contract? From a strict $/hr perspective, no. His pay isn't retirement benefits or stock options or such, it's just pay. Yet few complain about Billy Eilish or that Bad Bunny's stashed maybe $100 million away. Most working-class 31-year-old Joes don't have that kind of reserve.

Without that training, I want to see Sunday football feature South High's football team versus North this week (Eugene, OR), Grand Oaks versus Woodlands next week (TX) because the standard of play wouldn't be much better than that.

[MichMan]

33. Lots of people here complain about multi millionaires not paying enough in taxes

Last edited Sun Feb 8, 2026, 08:46 AM - Edit history (1)

"Yet few complain about Billy Eilish or that Bad Bunny's stashed maybe $100 million away".

Posts here proposing income taxes of up to 90% and wealth taxes are common

[MineralMan]

20. A number of high schools here in the Minnesota Twin Cities

have ski teams. Most have hockey teams. Kids from all economic levels participate, and fans support the sports and help kids who can't afford them to compete.

If you are a highly skilled, competitive athlete in any of those sports, you will have no trouble continuing to compete.

Of course, it's not Polo.

[sir pball]

24. Polo hasn't been an Olympic sport since 1936. That said...

"Equestrianism" still is…and an Olympic-level dressage horse is cheap at $1,000,000. Like, dirt-cheap…5-6M is in the "reasonable" range; the most expensive guy ever sold was private, but is estimated at somewhere between $15,000,000 and $21,000,000.

Now, what were we saying about "entitlement, leisure-class athletes"?

(as a barely-not-lower-middle-class kid who grew up skiing and mountain biking, a lot of it on my $5/hr dishwasher pay, this definitely rubs me wrong)

[quaint]

21. Alysa Liu

Alysa Liu was born on August 8, 2005, in Clovis, California, the oldest child of Arthur Liu and Yan Qingxin (Mary). Arthur Liu was an attorney who immigrated to the U.S. from a small mountain village in Sichuan, China, in the 1990s at the age of 25. Liu is the oldest of five children; like her siblings, she was conceived through an anonymous egg donor and a surrogate mother. Later, Liu's parents divorced, but her mother Yan continued to act as the siblings' legal guardian; they also frequently spent time at her house.

wikipedia

Elite skater? Yes.
Entitled childhood? No.

[JI7]

23. And ????

Even Summer athletes need to do things like raise funds with both working parents at decent jobs.

[sir pball]

25. Man, as I read this thread (language warning)...

[RockRaven]

27. If your assessment is in error, that error is

what you say about the summer olympics. For the most part those sports are no more accessible to the struggling or working class.

[Wiz Imp]

28. Despite all the negative comments, the point you were trying to make is in fact correct.

https://www.playgroundequipment.com/storage/image-gallery/average-cost-childrens-sports-5-2.webp

https://www.sportsdestinations.com/management/economics/nsga-study-8221#:~:text=The%20second%20graph%20below%20lists,incomes%20between%20$55%2C000%20and%20$57%2C000.

Research performed by NSGA earlier this year identified that the cost to participate in sports and recreational activities is one of the key barriers to greater participation. Certain sports/activities require more financial resources than others and tend to skew toward upper income households. Through the use of NSGA's annual sports participation study, an analysis of
participation by annual household income was executed to paint a clearer picture of which sports/activities typically are participated in by higher vs. lower income households.

The first graph below identifies the 10 sports/activities that are participated in by households with the highest incomes. Of the 51 sports/activities that NSGA tracks, Alpine Skiing leads the list with the median household income of participants being $114,000 per year. Golf is No. 2 with the median household income of $85,000. Rounding out the top 5 are Ice Hockey ($82,000), Scuba Diving ($81,000), and Motor/Power Boating ($77,000). Ranking Nos. 6-10 are represented by a variety of segments including Individual Sports (Tennis), Fitness (Work Out at Club), Open Water (Water Skiing, Kayaking), and Team Sports (Lacrosse). All sports/activities in the top 10 have participants with median household incomes of at least $72,000. The median household income among participants of many of these sports/activities continues to increase.

The second graph below lists the sports/activities that are participated in by households with the lowest incomes. No sport/activity has a median household income level below $50,000. Wrestling resides on that threshold at $50,000, with Target Shooting (Airgun), Tackle Football, and Dart Throwing all under $55,000. Billiards/Pool, Touch Football, Paintball Games, Hunting with Firearms, Skateboarding, and Fresh Water Fishing round out the bottom 10 with median household incomes between $55,000 and $57,000.

As a point of comparison, the average median income in the US is approximately $51,000. Comparing incomes across the 51 sports/activities that NSGA tracks, the median income averages out to approximately $66,000. The industry challenge remains to find methods to reduce financial barriers to participation, with specific focus toward the sports/activities that skew towards the highest incomes.

[tritsofme]

29. Median household income is around $75k. Those ranges you cite aren't exactly describing wealthy silver spooners.

[Wiz Imp]

34. You didn't read the article. At the time of the article, it mentions median household income was around $50,000

Not $75,000. This also refers to the income level where people can afford to participate in these sports. The income levels for those who can achieve Olympic level would be significantly higher. As it was, the income level for Alpine skiing was at least in the top 5% of all households - just to participate not be Olympic level.

Instead of focusing on the "silver spoon" comment, try addressing the point the OP was making which was that it takes a ton of money to be able to reach olympic level in most winter sports, which automatically means that the vast majority come fom family backgrounds with significant money that they can afford to spend the tens of thousand of dollars per year required to reach the olympics.

https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/national-international/the-cost-of-raising-an-olympic-winter-athlete/2022061/
It Can Take a Mountain of Money to Raise a Winter Olympian
Raising a brother and sister to be world junior champion ice dancers has cost the family more than $500,000 on their journey — so far

"When they were starting out, it was just a thousand or two a year early on. Then it started ramping up steadily as they started competing nationally and then internationally," Richard Parsons said, noting the annual expenses increased from an average of $40,000 a year to $75,000 last year.

And the Maryland family is not an outlier in how much it spends — eye-popping expenses are par for the course for most Olympians. Parsons said some teams in their sport spend more than $100,000 a year to train at the elite level.

Mike Trapp, the 2011 and 2012 U.S. snowboarding champion, said an average season training costs about $35,000 in equipment, coaching and traveling expenses. It's more expensive in a year leading up to the Olympics.

Sorry, but those types of expenses can not be afforded by average middle class families.

https://www.golfdigest.com/story/the-winter-olympics-are-amazing-but-also-a-shining-beacon-of-sports-privilege
The Winter Olympics are amazing, but also a shining beacon of sports privilege

So let's come back to luge. In order to be good at luge, you have to train at special facilities, which costs money—Mazdzer went to the National Sports Academy for high school in Lake Placid, a private school where I assume luge was his primary focus. Almost every obscure winter sport athlete from America either comes from reasonable wealth or found a benefactor. (Mazdzer's dad is a neurologist, while his teammate Tucker West's father is a wealthy entrepreneur who built him his own track at home.) It's limited by geography, because you're not going to take up luge in a hotter climate. And it's limited by popularity, because what kid would want to take up luge?

If you want to know why Germany is so good at the sport, read this piece—it's because they have a ton of luge clubs, invest more money than any other country, have more tracks, and start their athletes young. In other words, they manage on a national level to mitigate the limits of two factors, money and desirability. (If you've noticed that Norway seems to dominate cross country events, while the Netherlands is virtually unbeatable in long track speed skating and South Korea can't lose in short track, the answer is the same on an institutional level: They care more.)

Here's some trivia: How many luge tracks are there in America? Answer: There are two. TWO TRACKS! One in Lake Placid, and one in Park City, UT. There are four continents on this planet, including South America and Africa, that have zero! For training and competitive purposes, there are only 16 in the whole world. Similarly, Lake Placid has one of just six ski jumping facilities in the country...of course some of our Olympians have come from my hometown. It's the same with the Norwich athletes profiled in the Times, almost all of whom compete in specific winter sports available only to more affluent cold-climate athletes.

In Usain Bolt's heyday, I believe that you could search the planet for months and not find a single human being who could run faster over 100 meters. But if everyone had the same chance at luge? Odds are, there are dozens, perhaps hundreds, perhaps thousands of better lugers hiding in places where they'll never touch a sled. I hate to break out the p-word, since it's so badly overused, but so many winter Olympics sports are sports of privilege—rich people picking out obscure events they can excel at. The games are a wonderful spectacle, but look too closely, and the foundation of excellence starts to look pretty wobbly.

[MichMan]

35. Plenty of opportunities at HS and College levels in winter sports

It's limited by geography, because you're not going to take up luge in a hotter climate. And it's limited by popularity, because what kid would want to take up luge?

Whose fault is that? A significant part of the country lives in climates with cold weather, and not everything has widespread popularity.

For examples of other sports, High Schools often have Cross Country Skiing, which doesn't need a designated course, and Hockey programs, so those would be available to any student in that district regardless of income. If you perform well at the local and state level, there are all kinds of opportunities available in college sports for athletes to compete on a bigger stage. How is that any different than many summer sports like Track & Field events etc.?

[betsuni]

31. From chapter 3, Eat the Rich, of the how-to book "Provoking Progressives and Lampooning Liberals."

Don't forget corporate-oligarch sponsorship (corporathletes -- like the popular insult "corporadems" for Democrats, but in better shape).

[fujiyamasan]

32. I'm not sure exactly what that means with regards to sports

Winter sports are in general more expensive to pursue. The equipment, facilities, and training costs more. I remember hearing about the cost of hockey equipment from some parents and it’s not cheap, especially as you need to replace it as the kids get older.

I agree with that.

But none of that detracts from the skill of the athletes and all the time and practice they put into it.

[MichMan]

36. Youth hockey equipment is readily available second hand as kids grow out of it.

[phylny]

38. Evan Lysacek, 2010 gold medal figure skater,

lived in Naperville, IL where we lived for four years. Our daughter played soccer with his younger sister. His dad was a house painter at the time and his mom was a substitute teacher. Solidly middle class. Nice people, too.

[MagickMuffin]

41. Figure Skater Todd Eldredge raised funds through his community

They supported his ambitions and it paid off. He is the 1996 World champion, a six-time U.S. national champion (1990, 1991, 1995, 1997, 1998, 2002), a three-time Olympian (1992, 1998, 2002), and a six-time World medalist.


Not everyone is from wealthy families, they have to be creative in finding sponsors and fund raising.

[Boo1]

40. Who cares?

Just enjoy it or atleast let other people enjoy it without telling them how awful they are for doing so.

This type of shit is when liberals get a reputation for being out of touch.