USA wrestling is the National governing body responsible for wrestling sport in the United state as well as the representative of the wrestling games to the United States Olympic committee (USOC) and the United World Wrestling (UWW). The organization is responsible for other functions such as the coordination of amateur wrestling programs in the United States as well as helping in the creation of interest in the sport among the members of the different communities in different states as well as motivating the participation of interested parties. Funding of the sport has been one of the most challenging problem facing the game with the participating athletes failing to receive adequate funding to help them reach higher heights in the sport, the limited funding affects the success of the sport with few athletes willing to participate in the sport.
Different studies have been carried out by different sport professions with the intent to try and understand the challenges facing wrestling in the united states. Funding being the leading problem faced by the sport participant most of the published articles have been published to analyze the different policies set in place to handle the problem. Mark Asher's article focused on the need for money by the wrestling athletes and the comparison with other different bodies privately owned with the nationally managed US wrestling team. According to the news article the withdrawal of one of the team's main sponsor has led to all the changes within the teams preplanned schedules. This show the high level of financial crisis facing the team. After the arrest of John E. du Pont the sponsor of the team a huge mount of the running finances of the team were cut down. Considering the new moves from the USA sports national governing body, it shows the importance of financing of the sport. The athletes need training and expenses inquired during the trainings. The training venues, and the professional trainers required. The subsidizing of the 16 professional trainers being a good example. With more funding it is evident that more professional trainers would have been sponsored for the training team.
The high reliance on the sponsors by the wrestling team also proved to be a major problem. After the arrest of John E. du Pont, this affected the terms of sponsorship and from the article we find the need for the relocating of the athletes who trained at Foxcatcher on du Pont's 800-acre estate in the suburban of Philadelphia. This shows the need for standard training centers for the teams. The need for funds to handle such projects for instance being a crucial matter to attend to. The relocation shows the interruption of the training session among other challenges that the wrestling team was faced with. This affects the performance of the entire team. Not all the active wrestlers were accounted for during the moving of the team and from the article the new training location at the university of Pennsylvania had not yet confirmed the relocation of the wrestlers in their training grounds.
The article also focused on the compensation of the wresters which showed the differences between the payment received by the wrestlers under the USA Wrestling and the Wrestlers under Du Pont. The difference in the range of payment shows the difference support levels offered by both parties if one was to make a comparison of the two bodies. USA wrestling body offered the wrestlers compensation according to how they were ranked nationally where number 1 ranked received $650, number 2 $350 and number 3 $250. When compared to the du Pont's wrestlers number 1 received $1000, number 2 $800 and number 3 $600, the difference clearly shows the difference in the motivation levels between the wrestles. The US wresting team shows a small motivational effort as compared to the sponsored wrestlers. With this in mind the sponsored wrestlers received extra sponsorships on outside expenses. For such compensation to be realized the US wresting body needed to gain more funding sources so as to manage to sustain the wrestlers. The focus on the expenses also mentioned the top-ranking wrestlers living out the upcoming wrestlers who received less focus and support. With this happening the sport was expected to sign fewer wrestlers since very little compensation would be received by them if any was to be given.
This show the need for money by the team and the few sources of this capital is present. The article also manages to give the financial budget set aside for the USA wrestling operations, the funds are very minimal, the constrained nature of the allocated funds completely cripples the US wrestling teams progress towards Olympics competitions and the dire need for financing has greatly affected the teams progress.
The article by Philip Hersh "`Blood Money' Causes U.s. Wrestling Team Rift" shows the effect caused by the death of Dave Schultz. The shooting of the champion by the sponsor Du Pont created a major rift among the wrestlers since one side felt that the actions did not favor the interest o the wrestlers while other continued receiving sponsorship from Foxcatcher since they felt that the issue did not touch on them. Thinking about this situation, it is evident that financial maters were involved between the fighting parties. Though little was mentioned as per the main cause of the fight between the wrestlers it was evident that some of the wrestlers felt that it was wrong for any wrestler to stand for the name of Foxcatcher after the shooting of their fellow wrestler and a champion for that matter. They also felt that the club ceased to exists after Jan 26th when Dave the Olympic champion was shoot.
While on the other hand seven the wrestlers who were competing in the final stage of the Olympic trials were still being funded by du Pont. This indirectly shows the financial influence among the wrestlers; the funding was important and despite the situation the wrestlers had no option but to stick to there sponsor so as to receive the funding required. The situation challenged the moral stand of he wrestlers. Many felt that it was wrong for the wrestlers such as the world Champion Terry Brand to show their allegiance for do Pont after the killing of their fellow member. But on the other hand, what were they suppose to do. The funding received from their sponsors was needed and they had no other alternatives to go to. This was the motivational factor. This also show the financial challenges and the problems resulting to the financial challenges.
Lack of unity among the US wrestling team is witnessed as the wrestlers fight each other due to there difference in moral stands which has been financially motivated to some of the wrestlers. This led to the continued rivalry between the wrestlers which affected their sportsmanship. In return the US Olympic team kept on lagging behind due to the difference among the members. Some of the loyal Foxcatcher wrestlers were there for the funding although less could openly admit to this. Financial solution would have ended the problem where the wrestlers would have received other financial funding but it has already been established that the financial budget set aside for the USA wrestling team was stretched-out. With this in mind, du Pont also contributed $400 000 and due to the ongoing clashes and skirmishes, the budget would be strained more. The conflict led to change in the perspective on how wrestlers and the people saw those athletes who kept receiving funds from the Foxcatcher. They were seen as insensitive, immoral and disrespectful to Dave's family and the entire US wrestling team. But the problem came in where they needed this money, as said by Gable the money was needed by the wrestlers and who said that it was wrong to take the money. The pursuit for individual success as well as financial security divided the wrestling community further and brought the sport down to its knees with the continued conflicts. With all this being observed, it was evident that the financial challenge facing the US wrestling team was greatly affecting the Olympics wresting game potential of US.
From the internal conflicts among the wrestlers in the US wrestling family, other matters are covered on the challenges crippling the sport. A seen from the article by Mark Asher, where little attention is paid to the upcoming young wrestlers. This is due to the limited finances; hence the compensation is little. The article also majors on more sensitive matters which include the racial matter where the equality of race in the sport is not exercised. For a sport to grow and advance new members are signed in the sport, they bring with them new skills as well as new energy but the minute this level of entry in to the sport is not embraced, the sport is crippled since it does not grow. This was the current state of the US wrestling team. With little attention focused on the upcoming talent in the sport, little growth was being witnessed. The low ranked wrestlers received close to no compensation since the funding by the government and the sponsors was little. With this happening, very few members were enrolling resulting to small scale of talents being natured in the sort. The problem revolved back to the financing of the US wrestling team. The budget to adequately compensate or cater for all the wrestlers was not present, hence withdrawal of a major sponsor greatly crippled the upcoming talents in the sports. Very few had the stamina to maneuver through all the financial challenges among other so as to make it to the top ranked wrestlers who at least had their financial security or managed to get themselves sponsors.
On the other hand, the article also addresses the issue of color in the sport. The lack of equality within the sport also affected the talents being absorbed in the sport. With the majority of the sport team members being white the other races felt less absorbed in the game, this results to problems such as insufficient exploitation of talent since most of these talented wrestlers who were of different color felt unaccepted in the sport hence less enrolled. These challenges greatly affected the team US wrestling body had.
The existent of different financing for the wrestling team is also a worth addressing topic in relation to the US wrestling funding topic, the death of Dave Schultz rough about major concerns as to why such as successful athlete would have funding from such a sponsor and hoe the government failed to play its part in managing such talents. This directly shows a failure on the USOC sports management side. The article challenges the financial dependency of athletes to the wrong bodies since the right bodies fail to meet their responsibilities. The article brought to light different financial plans and proposals that would greatly generate funds for the athletes. For instance, the relationship between Olympics and the television networks and other commercial sponsors within the country. With all the lucrative financial deals the article helps shed light on matters on how the finances get shared resulting to the current state where the US wrestling team is among those that receive the lowest budget hence making it hard for the team to meet its requirements.
The article helps us understand the different financial incomes from the Olympics games and the different changes within the USOC. The changes have greatly impacted the amount of capital managed by the body although little amount of this money reaches the actual athletes. This show the few laid out legislations governing the compensation of the athletes as well as the different Olympic games. US wrestling being our case, I one of the games greatly affected by the legislations of small compensation plans which we find them, greatly impacting the nature of the sport since the athletes are greatly. A...
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