What is the value of Olympic victory?

Relay runners are now carrying the Olympic Torch to Paris. With the 2024 Olympics fast approaching, debate is again heating up about how much countries spend on national Olympic teams. My own country - Australia - has spent a mind-boggling 800 million euros on getting our elite sportspeople to Paris. This is a few times more than what our national government spends on non-elite sport in schools and local communities. This means that each gold medal that an Australian wins at the Paris Olympics will have a price tag of tens of millions of euros.

Olympics-bound sportspeople and their managers are convinced that this is money well spent. Indeed, the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) continues to lobby for greater public funding. For those going to Paris, the value of Olympic victory is enormous and blindingly obvious. However, for others, 800 million euros can appear to be...