Every four years the nation gets hooked on the Olympics and roots on Team GB, who did the nation proud by coming second at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Many of the athletes who represented Great Britain have rightly become famous thanks to their success at the games and while many of them shun the fame and prefer to concentrate on being athletes, some of them are happy to bask in the limelight and become celebrities, taking advantage of the many opportunities that come their way, such as TV shows, magazine deals and the like.
Yes – why not?
Olympians, especially the really successful ones, gain a lot of fame and recognition thanks to their achievements. If they want to take advantage of various opportunities that are offered to them after the games, surely they should be able to do what they want? If they want to step into the celebrity world, they’ve definitely earned the right to do so – after all, there are plenty of people who the media seem to qualify as celebrities who have achieved far less than winning Olympic medals. Olympians have to work incredibly hard and dedicate themselves to rigorous training schedules and if their hard work pays off and they win a medal, they should be able to enjoy the rewards. They’re already famous, so why not cash in on it? Wouldn’t you do the same?
No – they should concentrate on sports
There are some Olympians, such as Rebecca Adlington, Greg Rutherford, Louis Smith and Tom Daley, who are very media friendly and are keen to do projects like reality TV shows, for example. Some are more media friendly than others; Tom Daley is perhaps the most media friendly of all Team GM’s athletes – he’s regularly in the news and his personal life is written about quite frequently; he’s also done guest appearances on many TV shows and has even had his own shows (Splash!, Tom Daley Goes Global and Tom Daley: Diving For Gold). The main reason why some people don’t think Olympians should become celebrities is because they think media work distracts Olympians from their main goal: winning gold. Daley is the arguably the most hyped-up Olympian in Team GB, and yet he won one just one bronze. It’s still a great achievement, but given his celebrity status, people expect gold medals, not bronze ones. People think if Daley hadn’t been so focussed on media projects, he might have come back with a gold medal.
What do you think?
Should Olympians concentrate on sports and resist the temptation of the spotlight, or should they reward themselves for their hard work by becoming celebrities and taking advantage of opportunities that are offered to them? Does media work distract them from winning golds, or does it make no difference at all?
