Jason Lezak (what a hottie). If you watched the Beijing Olympics, you must have followed Michael Phelp's adventure towards 8 gold medals. This adventure and goal was to be fulfilled through the 4x100 meter freestyle relay, where both Michael Phelps and Michael Lezak participiated in. If you watched this amazing relay, you must know that the U.S. indeed won, thanks to the incredible record-breaking finish of Jason Lezak. After this historic finish, of course he recieved popularity, the spotlight, money.
Well, 2 out of 3 ain't that bad right? WRONG. The lack of large amounts of money may ruin his swimming career. Behind the Olympian, gold-medal winning, record-breaking swimmer is a casual man struggling to maintain the necessities that are needed to support himself, his family, and his swimming career. After I read an article of Newsweek called "America's Unemployed Olympic Hero," I learned a lot about the situation a lot of athletes are going through. We tend to overlook these things. We fail to see the casual person that hides under that popular, famous personality. YES PEOPLE, even the most talented, skilled and the epitome of athletes struggle today. Though they are peerless in skill, sublime in their own sport and seemingly impeccable, many athletes who are unemployed are quickly trying to make deals with sponsors (speed dating) in order to get back to their sport. Lezak's agent says:
"Athletes are starting to say they can't do it. Even in boom times, most
athletes struggle between Olympic games; post-Beijing, sponsorships have
evaporated along with everything else in the economy."
Like many athletes, Jason Lezak depends on the money he makes now to carry him on for a while. We dont realize he needs to find money quick because of the taxes, equipment and travel spendings he has to make. Jason Lezak was never a child prodigy, working his way up year after year. I'm sure money never stopped him year after year, and it would be such a shame if all that hard work was completely stopped because of a money problem. Jobs are difficult, and time-consuming, but swimming for many dedicated athletes like Lezak IS the job. They train many times a day, many days a week. These athletes are passionate about what they do, but money is a large challenge in their life. Even people like me struggle with money and sometimes have to give up items or temptations or passions. But we will never give up on something that makes us happy just because of a road-block like money.
It's kinda of weird to think that some professional athletes are struggling with money. Most people, including me, tend to think that Olympians and professional athletes just have to play or do their sport to make a living. To think that they might actually have to find a job is almost unbelievable. It would be like if Tim Lincecum, winner of the Cy Young award, was also a math teacher.
ReplyDelete-JenniferDylan
Jennifer said exactly what I was thinking. I've been under the impression that having enough money is just not a problem for professional athletes. Lezak's predicament should illustrate even more clearly than any scandal that celebrities are just normal human beings who experience the same problems we do at some point in their lives, monetary issues included.
ReplyDelete-halfpint
I agree whole-heartedly with your postand two comments above me. Although, unfortunate, the situation that Lezak is in, as of now, is one that should carefully be observed by society today. We tend to put celebrities and athletes on pedastool just because they entertain us. We need to come to a realization that in the end, they are people who go through the same problems as we do.
ReplyDelete