And then both groups pretend that it's the "spirit of competition" that's important, that anybody regardless of finances or genetic lottery has a reasonable chance of succeeding if they try hard enough. As if you don't need a measure of financial security to even be in the running (so to speak). Sometimes that security comes from taking a deal from a talent scout, whose job is maximizing the owner's profit from the deal...
Sport is incredibly important for encouraging teamwork and athleticism, but the sports industry is truly horrifying. So much money and intense human suffering, people pushing themselves to the absolute limit and often destroying their bodies and minds, and what do we get? Maybe some kids get inspired into volunteering for the meat grinder, but adults just cheer "their" teams and move on.
Sorry. I may have been harshly disillusioned as a young competitive cyclist cheering for Lance Armstrong. Maybe there's actual value being generated here, but I'm blind to it. Kinda seems like everyone accepts that professional athletes are commonly pushed into performance enhancing, life destroying drugs... Plus all the parasocial celebrity worship which also ruins lives. This would literally be cooler and far less harmful if we gave team managers robots to play with, instead of trying to twist human beings into "the best". OH and the OLYMPICS, once you introduce STATE POLITICS- [mic cut]