Wired:

Every Olympiad, it seems, sees a new crop of athletes become celebrities, their names and faces recognized by millions. Reaching that point requires staggering amounts of time, focus, and discipline with money. “You have to throw everything into it, and it becomes a kind of obsession,” says Craig Leon of the Warsaw Sports Marketing Center at the University of Oregon. Yet it brings little wealth. “For a lot of Olympic athletes, there isn’t a lot of money to be made,” he says. In fact, the Olympics can hurt an athlete’s earning power.

The lack of funding and the time, energy and effort it takes to reach the Olympic level in most sports makes these 16 days of competitions even more remarkable.