College Athlete to Olympian pipeline
As a college athlete myself, one of the elements I found the most impressive about the Olympics was the amount of college athletes that compete in the games. These athletes accomplished a major feat as they are considered among the best in the world at their sport while still being a student at university. There are over 1200 incoming, current, and former college athletes who competed in the Paris Olympics this year, beating Tokoyo’s representation by over 200 athletes.
The fact that the NCAA and other college leagues are operating at a level of competition high enough to contend with the best in the world is astounding. Although many sports require additional training, the impact of playing collegiate sports is not only beneficial to current athletes. The fantastic facilities, competition, and coaching, creates a platform where athletes can train during their time at school while also helping these athletes gain their confidence and the vision to become professionals after they graduate.
An important factor of the increase in college athletes competing in the Olympics is the opportunity for income. This has grown majorly since the introduction of NIL (Name, Image, and Likeness) deals in college sports, motivating athletes to be the best they can be and providing them with more money to use at their discretion to train and compete at the next level. At the Olympic games themselves, if an athlete wins a medal, countries will compensate them, further motivating these collegiate athletes. The United States pays their athletes 37,500 for winning gold, 22,500 for winning silver, 15,000 for bronze. This prize money coupled with sponsorships has created more motivation and opportunity for college athletes competing in the games than ever.
Team USA’s roster holds the most current, former, and incoming college athletes at 385 this year. That number is 65% of the entire team. Additionally, there are 14 US teams made up entirely of college athletes. This statistic is incredible and demonstrates the quality of college sports, and the facilities that have allowed for such growth and improvement in student athletes ability to perform. The top sports competed by collegiate student-athletes are track and field and cross country, swimming and basketball. These athletes come from a variety of schools and conferences, with University of Southern California sending 58 athletes and the Big Ten conference sending 313 athletes.
The growing representation of college athletes in the Olympics is an extremely impressive and interesting statistic that demonstrates the positive impact being a college athlete can have on reaching one's highest potential in their sport.