Correlation Between Economic Success and Olympic Performance

The economic success of a country is reflected in its performance in the Olympic Games ' true or false? Luck is something that almost everyone experiences. To experience it more, however, one must work harder. According to the online dictionary, luck is a combination of circumstances, events, etc, operating by chance to bring good or ill to a person. Abraham Lincoln once said “The harder I work, the luckier I get.” There is a lot of truth in his statement. The better one prepares oneself for a task, the more likely luck will grace him. For example, in the most recent Summer Olympic Games, there were two races when Michael Phelps, known for the seven gold medals he collected in swimming, won by a total of nine hundredths of a second ' one race by just a hundredth. Some critics call it luck. Others even call it divine intervention. Logically speaking, it was the result of all the hard work he put into his preparation. His performance was not just a fruit of his hard work, but also a fruit of the environment in which he trained in. True, he is a very talented swimmer, but his skill was honed also because the environment where he trained. The training environment he and his teammates had was a luxury not available to most of his opponents. It is also a benefit of the economic success of his country. With this said, it is evident that a direct correlation exists between a country’s economic success and its overall performance in the Olympic Games. In order to become more aware of this relationship, history must be observed. Based on the medal count of the past Olympic Games, it is noticeable that countries which are part of G7 consistently finish in the top twenty. The G7 is a group which consists of countries with prosperous economies namely the Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States of America. One thing these countries have in common, which also says a lot about its economy, is a superior Gross Domestic Product (GDP)