Olympic athletes, when the spotlight fades

With the Olympics beginning to fade from memory, except for the athletes and those closely associated with the Olympics, I couldn’t resist offering my thoughts on the Olympics held in London, where I have worked. the last 20 years or more.

The Olympic Games held in London were undoubtedly a great success for the athletes, volunteers and organizers. Anyone who has worked on the Olympics is to be congratulated for working on a mammoth task that demands great organization and presentation skills. I also give you my congratulations.

One question that always comes to mind every time the Olympic Games take place is whether it is really worth the sacrifice of the athletes, coaches and families involved.

The question probably removes any guilt I have for not trying very hard to beat the fight to get in shape.

But aside from gold and silver medal winners who can land lucrative endorsement deals during or immediately after the games, what happens to them afterwards when the media spotlight dies down? And their images are no longer on the front pages of newspapers around the world or broadcast to millions of homes. Are they still household names in the months and years after their spectacular achievements?

I decided to do some research on what happened to a couple of gold medal winners at the Beijing Olympics.

Ryu Seung-Min (born August 5, 1982 in Seoul, South Korea) a Korean table tennis player, won the gold medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics in the men’s singles competition.

There are few references to Ryu on the web. Ryu’s fame seems limited to table tennis circles. Professional table tennis players’ earnings rarely reach six figures and they don’t become household names.

How about weight lifting? The 2004 gold medal winner for lifting 105kg was Iran’s Hossein Rezazadeh, nicknamed “The Iranian Hercules”. Rezazadeh tried to capitalize on his Olympic achievement by appearing in ads promoting Dubai real estate.

His participation shocked many of his fans and was seen as demeaning to both him and his country, given the promotion of buying property on land considered a rival.

Once again, Rezazadeh is another example of an athlete who has achieved the ultimate athletic award, a gold medal, and then quietly slips into obscurity. This begs the question for me why do they do it?

Answers on a postcard please.