US Olympic team eyes state help as China challenges sporting order
By Roger Blitz in Beijing
Published: August 14 2008 03:00 | Last updated: August 14 2008 03:00
As the US Olympic team contemplates the abrupt loss of its longstanding dominance of the medals table to its Chinese hosts, American officials are looking at asking the federal government for money to make sure it never happens again.
In what has the potential to become a sporting version of the cold war, China has poured millions into its state sports system to produce medal winners at the Beijing Games, and the US is positioning itself to retaliate.
The US team, which gets no money from Washington, relies on only $150m a year from sponsors, fundraising and a share of revenues from the International Olympic Committee.
As a result, China has opened up such a comfortable lead over the US in the race for gold medals that it is poised to top the tally of overall medals for the first time, a position the US has held for 16 of the 23 Games in which it has competed.
"When you're talking about competition at this level, it requires financial support," said Darryl Seibel, US Olympic Committee spokesman, who described this year's Games as "the most competitive" in history.
"We are one of the few Olympic committees in the world that doesn't get funding from government," he said. "With the level of funding we receive, we are probably not even in the top five [of national Olympic committees]."
Asked whether the committee would lobby the US government for funds, Mr Seibel said: "That is something we are going to have to assess. As all of this becomes more competitive, it is something we are heading towards."
China's challenge to the US Olympic hegemony has been played out in various corners of Beijing's competition venues this week, none more so than the National Indoor Stadium where its gymnasts have won gold in both team events and threaten to win more over the next few days.
One academic study said China was recently training 370,000 pupils at state-funded sports schools and that government sports teams at provincial level and above were supporting more than 46,000 full-time athletes.
Mr Seibel said the USOC always knew the Chinese would have a strong games because of such investment. The US is also facing stiffer competition than usual from countries such as the UK, Australia and Japan, which are trying to increase their medals quota by targeting resources at specific sports.
Olympics in China, Page 6 NBC coverage, Page 14 www.ft.com/olympics
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008
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