Would you rather be rich, or an olympic champion?

[Usul]

Inspired by some heated debate surrounding the validity of todays olympics, I pose this question to the forum. Understand that the basis of the question is what you value more, being the best in your field, or being wealthy. Conditions are that rich implies multi-millionaire status. Olympic champion means a gold medalist in the sport of your choosing. For what it's worth, I'd take the Gold Medal without hesitation.

[RiverTheNuts]

I want to be remembered, and one gold medal isnt going to do that for you, so I pick wealth.

If it was something like Carl Lewis type olympic success then I would pick the medals

[dsm]

[ QUOTE ]
I want to be remembered

[/ QUOTE ]

How romantic. Okay, make it 10 gold medals or 50 million?

I'd like to pose this question to any former multi-gold medalist who is now financially down and out.

[Senor Choppy]

Without the struggle behind it, being the best in something really just implies that you won the genetic lottery. Give me the money and the chance to become the best in something else over the course of my life.

[M2d]

a friend of mine won a gold medal in tae kwon do at barcelona. he's parlayed that into a life that he loves. he travels under the seal of the USOC, he continues to train in his sport/love, and while not financially wealthy, he leads a very rich life.

that said, if I choose men's basketball, I'd probably be freakin rich anyway, since the US team is made up of NBA stars.

[Easy E]

You can HAVE the stinkin' bracelet- but I've said this before.

[ddollevoet]

Rich.

[Sponger15SB]

how about something like this, lets say these two things happened to you

1. you saved a bunch of nuns from a burning bus
2. you won the lottery

now a ton of local TV stations want to interview you? do you really care enough to get your face on TV for either of them, i'd rather not be put all over TV, it just isn't really that important to me.

same with gold medals, just give me some damn cash.

[Dominic]

Gold Medal in anything - curling or badmitton - would be preferable to rich.

Money comes and goes...being an Olympic champion will be written in your obit.

[Usul]

[ QUOTE ]
being the best in something really just implies that you won the genetic lottery

[/ QUOTE ]

Do have have any clue how hard these atheletes train? They don't just wake up in the morning and go win thier race/match. Being an athelete is a full time job. Genetics are only half the equation.

[Senor Choppy]

Genetics doesn't ensure them victory over the other olympic athletes, but it does over the other 99.9% of the population.

[Usul]

And in the olympics the other 99.9 percent of the population is irrelevent. That's the whole point. The best of the best. If every chump in the world could compete in the olympics, nobody would care.

[ClarkNasty]

"I'd take the Gold Medal without hesitation"

Why not just be rich and *buy* a Gold Medal?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=204&item=511618855 5&rd=1

[jwvdcw]

I would take $10,000 over an olympic medal. I could really care less about them. They're completely forgotten by the average person. What percentage of Americans do you think could say who won the Gold in the 1996 uneven bars?(I just picked a random event off the top of my head)

[Usul]

That's awesome. You don't need to be rich though, it's going for about 1300 bucks.

[Martin Aigner]

That´s not easy to be answered for me. Let´s put it this way:

If I could chose between being born extremly wealthy and know that I´d be to inherit $ 50 millions when I´m 18 or becoming a olympic gold medalist, I´d take the gold medal without any hesitation. On the other side I´d take most any average and happy life over a 50 millions heritage. I mean this honestly and seriously.

On the other side: If I was to make my fortune out of my own without being an workoholic, who doesn´t have any time to enjoy the money, well that´s something different. I think in that case I´d rather take the money and enjoy the nice things that I can do with them.

One more thing: I´d rather be an olympic champion in a country like my own (Austria), where a gold medal is something extraordinary than in a country where gold medals are something like a standard. You US guys can compare a gold medal for an Austrian to a Super Bowl Ring for any US guy. Now there is one Austrian who won 2 Super Bowls, and actually nobody here cares about it. But if it was a gold medal, now that would be something /images/graemlins/smile.gif

Best regards

Martin Aigner

[Sponger15SB]

[ QUOTE ]
who won the Gold in the 1996 uneven bars?(I just picked a random event off the top of my head)

[/ QUOTE ]

ah, that would be the great russian Yergei Sofokov.

uh, yea i dunno, why not pick a less random event though. i mean most people would rather have an olympic gold medal in the 100 meter dash than "individual foil" or something.

[Sponger15SB]

you'd rather work for $50 million then for somebody to just give you $50 million?!?!?

you're insane.

[Cyrus]

That used to be a no-brainer.

[Martin Aigner]

[ QUOTE ]
you'd rather work for $50 million then for somebody to just give you $50 million?!?!?

[/ QUOTE ]

DEFINETLY! Just think about it, and you might admit, that it has some value

[ QUOTE ]
you're insane.

[/ QUOTE ]

Never doubted that one, although not because of the above statement.

Best regards

Martin Aigner

[The once and future king]

[ QUOTE ]
Gold Medal in anything - curling or badmitton - would be preferable to rich.

Money comes and goes...being an Olympic champion will be written in your obit.

[/ QUOTE ]

Great something I get to enjoy when I am dead.

[astroglide]

i saw a documentary on the ironman competition (swim a billion miles, bike a million miles, run a marathon) and i think there's probably nothing that could compare to simply crossing the finish line for most of us.