Final Blogtastic Reflection (#4)

For my final blog reflection for 4th quarter, I chose "Blagojevich on 'Celebrity Apprentice'" as my favorite blog post. The reason I like this one so much is because I feel very strongly about the subject. This usually characterizes my favorite posts. When you're really passionate about what you're writing about, it just makes it a lot more fun to write. And when I saw that Blagojevich was on a reality t.v. show and not in jail, I was just outraged. I was also able to incorporate a bunch of sources in this post, which I think adds depth and more credibility to a post. And from those sources, I used direct quotes and dissected them to prove my point even more. It just had more substance than some of my other posts.
This year I have really developed as a blogger. Not that I blogged before this class, but my style has changed since the beginning of the year. I started my blogging career by mostly writing about certain issues that I encountered in my everyday life, but didn't necessarily connect to class. But as the year continued, my posts started to become extensions of class discussions, which is what I think Mr. Bolos and Mr. O'Connor intended them to be. And when I could not extend the discussion to my blogging, I wrote about prominent issues in the news. Not always, but I tried to.
I have really enjoyed blogging this year because I do like to write, but essays can often times be laborious and they take a long time to do. On the other hand, a blog post doesn't have to be long. You can write a little about a lot, and that's what I've really liked about blogging this year.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Money for Medals

     Last night as I was passing through the kitchen where the news was blaring on the t.v., I happened to overhear one of the news reporters talk about the incentives for Olympic athletes. And apparently, if an athlete medals, they are awarded $25,000 for gold, $15,000 for silver, and $10,000 for bronze. I had always wondered whether Olympic athletes got paid or not, but it seems a little outrageous to me. $25,000 for gold?! Seriously? And what about people who win multiple gold medals? According to the New York Times 2008 Beijing Olympics medal count, the United States won 36 gold medals which adds up to $900,000, almost a million dollars going to gold medalists. But we also won 38 silver and 36 bronze medals, so in total we dished out a total of $1,830,000 to athletes. That's a lot of money. And where exactly does it come from?
     Don't get me wrong, I think it's a good thing to award Olympic athletes for their success. They're representing America and making everyone proud with their efforts so I think they deserve something. But $25,000 for a gold just seems like a lot of money to me. I also thought about the athletes' reasons for going to the Olympics. Do they go just for the cash incentives or do they go because they are truly passionate about their sport? I feel like they have to be passionate about it because most athletes spend their entire lives training, so if they didn't love their sport, they probably would have quit long ago. But I don't know. Do you think Olympic athletes get paid too much? Not enough? Or shouldn't be paid at all?
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1 comment:

  1. Sam HFebruary 24, 2010 at 1:46 PM

    $25,000 by almost any measure is a tiny amount. It seems like a lot but lets compare it to a baseball player who makes well over ten million a year. This is four years for $25,000. You may say that almost 2 million dollars is a lot to pay from the government. When you consider that the government has a yearly budget in the trillions, a few million is really nothing to someone who lifts American morale so well; I don't think there is any better bang for one's buck.

    And what you said about an athlete doing it just for the money is again ridiculous. Between training (coaching and facilities) the trip, and 4 years of no profession beyond practicing, $25,000 does not come close to paying for the cost of participating. That is before you consider the mental toll that practicing takes. Can you imagine 8-10 hours a day working your body to the ragged edge?

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