I don’t think any sports are exempt, nothing takes kids in and spits them out like football.
Yeah, but they can just leave the footie behind and become world-famous Chefs right?
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And then get a celebrity invitation to Kona
I know a few people who went through the rowing system and rowed full time for the GB squad for a number of years. I think the big difference compared with a lot of professional sports is that these are people who either delayed starting lucrative careers in the “real world” after university or took time out of proper jobs to train full time and they took a big financial hit to do so.
Lottery funding is pretty low compared with what they would have been earning in a proper job and they were losing ground on their peers in the workplace.
Sailing is just as bad…
btw - in case you missed it…
Dare I say it - rowing is also traditionally a private school pursuit. Therefore it lends itself to people who are going through tertiary education and better preparing themselves for the real world.
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But - and perhaps slight controversial - isn’t that how sport should be considered. As something you do until you are too old/not good enough and then either have enough money to retire, or get a real job.
Otherwise you are basically putting all your eggs in a basket that is guaranteed to have the bottom fall out (as you age and other people get better than you you will lose your career - which is fine if you have prepared for it) That might be at 22, 30 or 37 but it will happened.
A lot of people complaining about these systems seem to be the ones who are spat out at the younger end of that range.
Being nice - how much responsibility/duty of care should they have for those that don’t ‘make it’, and where do you draw the line? That’s another reason I think the rowing example works - there is no duty of care to the hundreds of people who make their own choice to give up time to try to get good enough to get a place on the squad.
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What you said - about rowing being Upper/middle class. Not many who go through the various high-performance sausage factories (especially football) are putting off a career in Medicine, Law or the City.
It’s the one thing I have always liked about the US sports system, particularly football. It requires aspiring pro’s to stay in education (you become academically ineligible if your grades fall below a certain threshold) and it’s only those that know for sure they’re getting drafted in the NFL that don’t see through their senior year and complete their degree.
Moreover, there is a requirement for Div 1 schools to offer a broad range of sports scholarships in order to be in the lucrative Div 1 football and basketball world. So by having a multi-million dollar generating football programme, they are required to fund a full sporting scholarship to a female lacrosse player / male wrestler, etc. This means a whole variety of sports give you a pathway to a free education.
There are a number of things wrong in America, but not having the sole goal of kids being to make it as a footballer, skip school and throw education out of the window, for what is effectively a pipe dream, is not one of them. I knew a few people at school who did the aforementioned. None made it. We did have a guy in my Sunday footie team make it as a pro cricketer however
see @stenard 's post.
I fully appreciate the ‘class’ & education factor for rowing - but my point is that all sports should be like that, and where they aren’t people should realise that they don’t have a back up and they are on borrowed time with the ticking clock of age and performance.
I know that sounds harsh, but at the very least those going into ‘the sausage factory’ need to be aware of the choices they are making and the range of outcomes.
Actually the Omelette analogy is better than sausage factory! The other equally odious Sutton has smashed how many eggs to make 2 omelettes?
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My brother rowed for England U18, fourth in the double (I think) in the world Championships in Poland in 1995. He went to a comprehensive school (Windsor Boys), and had loads of support as a junior. However, he ultimately decided to go to University rather than pursue a rowing career. I think that very few of his friends who continued to row were ultimately successful, and I know that at least 3 ended their rowing careers due to back injuries
I’m sorry, but whichever way you cut it, “Windsor Boys” just sounds posh 
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my physio worked with the Olympic Rowing squad at (I think) Athens… she’s particularly expert on shoulders and backs… funny coincidence that…
It wasn’t quite Grange Hill… Eton College even let them use some of their rowing facilitied
Bit like my Peterborough comprehensive school education really… except, most of its year 5 products would have struggled to spell Eton, and thought Grange hill a ‘bit posh’
Even that is pretty cut-throat, I know a couple of people who had football scholarships, got really bad injuries and couldn’t finish their studies.
Jeff
dear god…you are a doctor, you work in sport…there is dodgy sh1t going down…
Do you:
a: cover your arse
b: report it to the authorities
Ethics, man, ethics!!!
Didn’t the guy who ‘manages’ this lot get an CBE or something for his ‘management’ skills?
Or was he just in charge of jiffy bag purchase?