Winter Athletes: Summer Envy?

With one weekend and a couple of days gone, the Winter Olymplics are pretty much in full swing. We've already had Michelle Kwan withdraw, Bode Miller came in 5th after going out for "a few beers", and Shaun White has won gold in snowboarding. A lot of other things have happened in these first few days, but I think I covered all the major stuff.

My question is, do the winter olympic athletes wish they were in the summer games? I ask because it seems to me that the winter games are just a second tier event when compared to the summer games. I mean if you listed the events from both games side by side, I think i'm gonna chose to compete in the summer events every time.

The biggest problem I think the winter olympics has is accessibility. I mean if I just up and decided I wanted to be a biathlete, I would need to acquire a rifle and a mountain full of snow and targets. Being poor and from New York City, the rifle probably wouldn't be that hard to get but the mountain with the snow would be near impossible. I guess the fact that we got 27 inches of snow in Central Park this weekend, would make this the perfect time to start my biathlon career.

Obviously, I'm being a little facetious. My point is still valid though. If you want to events from the summer olympics, you can go to a local park and practice whatever the event is for the most part. If you want to do winter events, you need mother nature on your side and more importantly money.

I don't ski so I don't know how much a lift ticket cost at any ski resort. The fact is they cost, not to mention you have to travel to the mountain in most cases. I wanted to play hockey in high school just because I thought it would be fun. I learned that, after purchasing equipment and paying my share of the team's rink fees, it would cost almost a thousand dollars to be on the team. Not so much fun anymore.

This has to affect the athletes. I'm no expert but I would be willing to say that winter olympic athletes don't make nearly as much as their summer counterparts in endorsements. I mean I haven't seen Apolo Ohno out marketing those new Nike speed skates recently. This is why I ask, do the winter athletes get jealous of the summer athletes?

I feel like, unless they do something extraordinary in a sport that the public cares about and they are American, nobody remembers winter olympic athletes until their name is brought up at the next olympics. Bonnie Blair in '90 and '94, we remember her because her performance transcended speed skating, she dominated.

That's the other problem. Olympic athletes, not just winter but summer also, don't have a chance to dominate. For most olympic events four years is an eternity. Sure we often see people compete in multiple olympics, but how often do they dominate multiple olympics. what we usually end up with is the coverage of the aging veteran going up against the young upstart. Sure the vet may win a silver or a bronze but the gold is hard the second time around.

This is the problem winter athletes have, for the most part their sports are only showcased once every four years. Sure these sports have world championships, but when was the last time you heard a bidding war between ESPN and NBC for the curling world championships. These athletes don't have a chance to become huge stars because the public doesn't have the chance to get to know them.

I feel like people do watch the track and field world championships and people do tune in to the Tour de France (maybe not so much since Lance is gone) every now and then. That leads to the athletes in these sports having the opportunity to build a fan base. Yet another reason for the winter athlete to hate the summer athlete.

As always feel free to let me know what you think.