{"id":411491,"date":"2024-07-11T20:47:15","date_gmt":"2024-07-11T20:47:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=411491"},"modified":"2024-07-11T21:05:03","modified_gmt":"2024-07-11T21:05:03","slug":"awkward-olympics-truth-exposed-by-aussie-stars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=411491","title":{"rendered":"Awkward Olympics truth exposed by Aussie stars"},"content":{"rendered":"

For many of the 10,500 athletes converging on France for this month's Olympics<\/a>, they will be realising or chasing a lifelong dream.<\/p>\n

Winning an Olympic medal is the very pinnacle for most of the 32 sports on offer. The feat won't be matched by any other accolade throughout their career.<\/p>\n

For most – but certainly not for all.<\/p>\n

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\ufeffIt's why the golfers<\/a> selected to wear the green and gold at Le Golf National have mixed reactions when asked where the Olympics ranks on their to-do list.<\/p>\n

Golf featured at the Games in 1900 and 1904 but then disappeared from the schedule for 112 years.<\/p>\n

When it returned for the Rio 2016 event, the world's No.1 ranked man opted out of competing.<\/p>\n

\"Aussie<\/p>\n

That was Aussie star Jason Day.<\/p>\n

Day had climbed to the top\ufeff of the world rankings on the back of winning the 2015 PGA Championship – his first and only major triumph to date – and the 2016 Players Championship, which is colloquially known as golf's fifth major.<\/p>\n

Put bluntly, the Olympics did not hold the same allure as the tournaments Day was competing in from week to week as a professional.<\/p>\n

"\ufeffIt was never really a thought that I'd be able to play in the Olympics, because it wasn't ever a part of it until just recently," Day told Australian media after being named as one of four Olympic golfers.<\/p>\n

"I (now) get nervous \ufeffabout the possibility of winning a gold medal – even just a medal in general – which means that I really want to."<\/p>\n

Day did, however, suggest his motivation for winning an Olympic medal does come with an ulterior motive.\ufeff<\/p>\n

"Currently \ufeffI've got one major championship, I've got one Players Championship, got 13 (PGA Tour) wins… am I on the outside looking in on the Hall of Fame? Maybe, I'm not sure," he said.<\/p>\n

"But if I do win a gold medal I honestly feel that will push me over the edge (of Hall of Fame induction).<\/p>\n

"\ufeffKnowing that I'm in the Olympics now and representing Australia, it feels different. People have worked their whole life to get to this point.<\/p>\n

"It (will be) really cool to look back when I'm retired… that I did represent Australia at the Olympics."\ufeff<\/p>\n

\"Minjee<\/p>\n

While Day was chatting via a Zoom call from America he was looking at his trophy cabinet, that includes 13 PGA Tour trophies as well as the esteemed Wanamaker Trophy – the PGA Championship cup that stands 75cm tall and weighs 12 kilograms.<\/p>\n

An Olympic medal – even of the gold variety – would be dwarfed, physically speaking, when put next to that piece of silverware.<\/p>\n

\ufeffThe other factor for professional golfers is money.<\/p>\n

Across his 16 seasons on the PGA Tour, Day has earned about USD$60.5 million in prize money alone. In today's exchange rate that's more than $90m Australian.<\/p>\n

Even his Olympic teammate Min Woo Lee, 25, has earned USD$5.5m in just 43 events.<\/p>\n

Last week their countryman Cam Davis – who did not qualify for the Olympics – pocketed AUD$2.5m for winning his second PGA Tour event<\/a>.\ufeff<\/p>\n

\ufeffThe Australian Olympic Committee will pay gold medallists $20,000 for a win in Paris. A silver medal will net them $15,000 while bronze is $10,000. Most athletes won't be paid unless they finish on the podium.<\/p>\n

For top professional sports like golf, tennis and basketball, the risk is arguably not worth the possibility of a medal around their neck.<\/p>\n

For some, it's more advantageous to use the Olympic period to take a break from competing.<\/p>\n

Minjee Lee – Australia's second-ranked women's golfer and two-time major winner – \ufeffdoes not agree.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"The Olympics is something a bit bigger than just playing for yourself, you're playing for your country," she told Australian media last week.<\/p>\n

"It's the biggest honour you could have in terms of playing for your country.<\/p>\n

"I know week in week out we do represent Australia, but we're not playing for Australia, and the atmosphere (at the Olympics) is just a little different.<\/p>\n

"You've got to be there to experience it."<\/p>\n

Lee – who will be joined by Hannah Green in the \ufeffwomen's contingent for Australia – was speaking on the same Zoom call as her younger brother Min Woo.<\/p>\n

Min Woo was a teenager when golf returned to the Olympics in Rio, and he admits a gold medal was not always on his to-do list.<\/p>\n

"I think it's very high up there now. At first it was like, not really… growing up for the swimming, for track, the Olympics was the biggest thing," he explained.<\/p>\n

"I think golf is definitely becoming that way. It's up there… maybe not like the Masters, or the majors, but right behind it for sure.<\/p>\n

"To call yourself a gold medallist is very cool for your resume, and it's nearly as cool as winning a major I guess."<\/p>\n

Minjee is heading to her third Olympics, while her brother and Day will be there for the first time.<\/p>\n

Yet the contrast in their \ufeffreactions to the same question highlight the awkward reality of global professional sports at the Games.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For many of the 10,500 athletes converging on France for this month's Olympics, they will be realising or chasing a lifelong dream. Winning an Olympic […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":375876,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411491"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=411491"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411491\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":411495,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411491\/revisions\/411495"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/375876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=411491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=411491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=411491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}