The harsh reality of most Olympians is that the financial struggles are always an issue no matter how well they do. It really depends on the sport and the event within that sport. Some of the very top Track & Field athletes are well off but it is a very steep drop off and it depends what country you are from and what event you are in.
Olympians have put in years of sacrifice and forgone a professional career outside of sports to represent their country. I have known some Olympians that are $60,000 in credit card debt and have had family members hold off their retirement to help their kids continue to train to represent the United States on a world level.
Cyrus Hostetler embodies the unbelievable sacrifice and roadblocks that athletes must endure to reach the highest stage.
The Injuries
Throwing the javelin is extremely brutal on your body. Imagine running as fast as you can and sticking out your leg to stop yourself in an attempt to transfer your energy into a spear that weights 6 times as much as a baseball.
Here are the injuries Cyrus has overcome.
- 2006 - Torn ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow.
- 2009 - Tore his ACL, MCL, lateral meniscus, and a 1cm tear in his joint capsule.
- 2010 - Retore his ACL.
- 2015 - Shoulder Issues
Despite all these issues he was able to make the 2012 Olympic Team and compete in London.
A couple of years ago he decided to move to the Olympic Training center in San Diego and really focus in on the 2015 World Championships and the 2016 Olympics.
USA Track & Field ended up cutting him from the program saying that he had a 0% chance to win a medal in 2016. He decided to stay there and had to pay to train at the center and live outside of the Olympic Training Center.
The thing you have to realize about the US Olympic Training Center is that there are more people training there from other countries than there are American athletes. Other countries Olympic teams are often times better funded and pay for their athletes to go to training camps at places like the US Olympic Training Center.
This makes it very tough to have any support for the athletes from the United States.
After USA Track & Field disrespected Cyrus and many other athletes by kicking them out of their training situation Cyrus didn't let it stop him from becoming a Two Time Olympian.
At the 2016 Olympic Trials that just took place a few weeks ago, he dropped a huge BOMB! Breaking the USA Olympic Trials Meet Record and securing his spot on the United States Olympic team! Here is the video.
My Connection To The Track & Field World
I was a Division I Track & Field athlete myself and yep..... I threw the javelin as well. I also continued to throw after college.
Also my first company revolved around the sport of Track & Field and one of my goals was to help fund elite level Track & Field athletes to help them with their training. I was only able to help out a couple guys. The numbers were never strong enough to really make a huge impact like I wanted to. In one of the previous videos on here I was talking about online business and was showing a DVD that I produced for that Track & Field community.
Cyrus Has Tried To Gain More Funding
He ran a GoFundMe campaign for over a year and was only able to raise $1,255.
My Plan
I'm hoping that the Steemit community can come together and UPVOTE this post and I'm going to take the Steem Dollars and convert them to BTC and then to USD and give it to Cyrus before he leaves for Rio on the 9th of August. Also his 30th birthday is on the 8th of August and if we can come together to really help him out and not be so stressed out financially that would be amazing.
Hopefully after the Olympics go well for him he is able to close out the season in Europe. There will be another month or so of the season left and possibly get him competing in a Steemit.com Jersey! I also want to get him up to speed on having his own blog on here.
He would be the first Olympian blogging on this platform I believe.
