Olympic athletes - how chosen

KellyJef · #1 (**permalink**) 08-09-2008, 11:34 AM

Believe it or not, I have never really understood how the Olympics actually work. I have never watched them on tv.

I just watched a little of the opening and would like to understand how the athletes are actually chosen.

How can one country have a population of 10 million and have 15 athletes and another country have 10 million people and have 200 athletes?

And I am shocked how many countries I have never even heard of -- I couldn't find these countries on a map if my life depended on it

jeanief · #2 (**permalink**) 08-09-2008, 01:29 PM

I don't think that all countries select their athletes who compete in the Olympics the same way. Some countries "groom" their athletes from the time they are basically toddlers. Here in the United States, athletes compete against other athletes in their same sport to be eligible for the team. In some sports--gymnastics for example--there is a competition for first one or two people on the team and the "athletic committee" then chooses the rest of the team from others who have competed nationally. Don't know how those "committees" are formed, though. But, usually, regardless of what country you are dealing with, Olympic athletes have trained their entire lives just to compete in the games.

KellyJef · #3 (**permalink**) 08-09-2008, 02:02 PM

Thanks for the response.

I guess my main question is: are countries allowed to send as many athletes to compete as they want to?

It doesn't seem fair that country A has 20 athletes competing while country B has 200 athletes competing. Wouldn't country B have a HUGE advantage is winning more medals than country A? Or am I missing something. How would it be fair to laud country B for winning more medals than country A?

I actually saw that one of the countries had only 1 athlete.

jeanief · #4 (**permalink**) 08-09-2008, 02:17 PM

Oh, don't know about that but it is an interesting question....

JDYMITCH · #5 (**permalink**) 08-09-2008, 06:34 PM

I am not sure either. However as far as I am aware each country does not have to participate in every sport . So therefore if a country just does not have an athlete who is ready to participate in say basketball they can (as far as I understand ) opt to not participate in that events.

targetgirl · #6 (**permalink**) 08-10-2008, 12:06 PM

I don't think there's a required number of athletes that a country has to send. I do think that each country is limited to a certain number of athletes/teams per event such as 1 basketball team or 3 runners in the 100m hurdles, etc.

Think about this: Some, if not most, of the countries that only have a couple of athletes at the Games are countries that are poor, sometimes VERY poor. There are no facilities in those countries for training for sports such as gymnastics, swimming, etc. The only thing the athletes can train for are things such as long distance running which don't really require formal facilities. That is how those countries end up with so few athletes.
Also, many countries do not support their athletes with any sort of money nor are there any private groups that do either. Those athletes have to raise all their money on their own and do all their training on their own so that reduces the number of athletes.

Personally, I love to see the 1 or 2 athletes coming from countries I've never even heard of. To me they represent what really should be the true spirit of the games: Competing because you truely love your sport and want to do your very best at it.

jeanief · #7 (**permalink**) 08-10-2008, 01:27 PM

I agree with you 100% Targetgirl....

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