Olympic athletes, when the spotlight fades
As the Olympics begin to fade from our memory, except for athletes and those closely associated with the Olympics, I couldn’t resist offering my thoughts on the Olympics held in London, where I have worked. the last 20 years or more.
The Olympic Games held in London were undoubtedly a great success for the athletes, volunteers and organizers. Anyone who has worked at the Olympics should be congratulated for working on a mammoth task that demands great organization and presentation skills. I also give you my congratulations.
One question that always crosses my mind whenever the Olympics take place is whether it is really worth the sacrifice of the athletes, coaches and families involved.
The question probably eliminates any feelings of guilt I have for not trying hard to beat the fight to get in shape.
But aside from the gold and silver medal winners who can score lucrative sponsorship deals during or immediately after the games, what happens to them afterward when the media attention dies down? And their images are no longer on the front pages of newspapers around the world or broadcast to millions of homes. Are they still household names in the months and years after their spectacular achievements?
I decided to do some research on what happened to a couple of gold medal winners at the Beijing Olympics.
Ryu Seung-Min (born August 5, 1982 in Seoul, South Korea), a Korean table tennis player, won the gold medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics in the men’s singles competition.
There are few references to Ryu on the web. Ryu’s fame seems limited to table tennis circles. Professional table tennis players’ earnings rarely reach six figures and they do not become household names.
How about weight lifting? The 2004 gold medal winner for lifting 105 kg was Iran’s Hossein Rezazadeh, nicknamed “The Iranian Hercules”. Rezazadeh tried to capitalize on his Olympic achievement by appearing in advertisements to promote real estate in Dubai.
His participation surprised many of his fans and was seen as demeaning both to him and to his country, given the promotion of buying property in a land considered to be a rival.
Once again, Rezazadeh is another example of an athlete who has achieved the ultimate athletic award, a gold medal, and then quietly slipped into anonymity. This begs the question for me why do they do it?
Answers on a postcard please.