Regarding your question about poverty, I'd say it's a tough one.
Because in third World countries, only the athletes that pass the selection process actually come out of poverty. The others stay there.
In rich countries on the other hand, I see two things :
- having the means to train with the best coaches, the best gear... can help you make it to the top ; some rich parents are even pushing hard this way (see the article on tennis a few weeks back here en HN)
- but also, if you have the means to go to college, aiming for a regular career is a way much safer bet than pursuing a professional athlete career. Teenagers that are very good at a sport and are given the choice between the two, most are going to pick the regular career and enjoy sport outside of work. A poor kid who's choice is between a life changing career in sports and stay in the misery they known since their birth, are definitely going to pick the only one offering the hope of a positive outcome.
They also sail extremely close to the limits, though. For example, exercise induced asthma is extremely common for athletes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exercise-induced_bronchoconstr...:
“Research by sports scientist John Dickinson found that 70 percent of UK-based members of the British swimming team had some form of asthma, as did a third of Team Sky cyclists, compared to a national asthma rate of eight to ten percent, whilst a study by the United States Olympic Committee in 2000 found that half of cross-country skiers had EIB.”
Many of those athletes will use medicine to correct for this that enhances their performance. That isn’t that different from taking corticosteroids to cure an inflammation that thus allow athletes to train at higher intensity, but the former is medicine and the latter is forbidden medicine aka doping.
Is that a UK-specific sporting regulation? In the US, professional athletes regularly take cortisone shots with no repurcussions.
That sounds backwards. Poor people have more distractions, they need to think about how to survive the current week/month with the little they have, and do everything they can do make sure to afford housing and food, leading to less time spent training.
At least that's my personal experience of being poor and not being able to focus because I didn't know if I'd afford the rent the next month.
As someone who grew up poor - this doesn’t make any sense. When you’re poor you can’t afford training, you can’t afford food and time to stay competitive.