This has been a summer full of sports. Starting in early July, with the Pan Am Games in Toronto and, more recently, with the Parapan Games, I’ve had the privilege of watching so many exceptional athletes across a broad range of sports, many of which I had never seen. From the precision of badminton to the rough and tumble (literally) of wheelchair basketball; the unbelievable speed of cyclists on the track at the velodrome; to the control of seated volleyball; the teamwork of the Parapan runners and their guides on the track to the outstanding individual performances of our swimmers, I loved it all. Watching these athletes do it for the love of their sport and hearing their stories of accomplishment brings out the best in all of us – volunteers, spectators, people on the street. Most of them do it for very little money and some had to pay their own way to the Games.
I have trouble squaring that fact with the enormous sums being paid to the professional athletes who have also entertained us this summer. The Blue Jays baseball club is on a roll – and has a player payroll of $120 million. Serena Williams who has earned $9 million in prize money so far this year was beaten last week by 17 year old Belinda Bencic who has earned a mere $1.2 million year to date. I recognize that years of hard work have brought them to the pinnacle of the sports world and their earnings reflect our insatiable thirst for athletic entertainment. And I am glad that women tennis players take home the same purses as the men.
The women who played their hearts out in the gold medal basketball game at the Pan Am games work as hard at their sport as the top ranked professional tennis players. Why do we value the human effort that goes into these accomplishments so differently? Why can the Blue Jays sell out 50,000 seats in the Rogers Centre when they are on a winning streak and only 1200 people cheered for Canada in the gold medal game of men’s baseball? I do not claim to have the answers to these questions but suggest society would be healthier if the gap were smaller – let’s raise the support for our Pan/Parapan/Olympic athletes and maybe pay the pros a little less.
