It doesn’t seem that realistic if you need to perform in the top 1% among all your poverty stricken competitors. There’s a finite number of places for successful athletes.
Sure, a not insignificant number of sports stars have a background that’s considered lower class, but the number of people living below that poverty line that will become sports stars is so low I’m not even sure how many zeros go between 0.[…]1%
Even if all of those people were top class athletes, there’s only room in the sports world for a few hundred of them at most.
It’s not a realistic career path, it’s a lottery that requires high level athletic skill.
But again - it’s the 1% that made it there. Only ~450 players are in the NRL. Many of them earn the minimum allowed of 100k still, and their careers average like 3 years. That’s the 1%.
sport is often the only realistic path out of systemic poverty for young people.
The number of people that can make a living from sport is miniscule. It’s not a realistic path to strive for. You’ve got almost as much chance of winning the lottery.
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It doesn’t seem that realistic if you need to perform in the top 1% among all your poverty stricken competitors. There’s a finite number of places for successful athletes.
Especially when the people with financial resources will usually have a better chance of making it for one reason or another.
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You’re missing my point I think.
Sure, a not insignificant number of sports stars have a background that’s considered lower class, but the number of people living below that poverty line that will become sports stars is so low I’m not even sure how many zeros go between 0.[…]1%
Even if all of those people were top class athletes, there’s only room in the sports world for a few hundred of them at most.
It’s not a realistic career path, it’s a lottery that requires high level athletic skill.
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I see, my apologies.
I thought you were trying to say it was a realistic way for them to escape poverty when you said it was the only realistic way to escape poverty.
But again - it’s the 1% that made it there. Only ~450 players are in the NRL. Many of them earn the minimum allowed of 100k still, and their careers average like 3 years. That’s the 1%.
The number of people that can make a living from sport is miniscule. It’s not a realistic path to strive for. You’ve got almost as much chance of winning the lottery.