Quote Originally Posted by Pannonian View Post
It's less about making money, and more about spending money. With the exception of Russia, the top countries in the medals table are also the richest countries in the world: the US, Britain, China, Germany, Japan, South Korea. Like in football, there is interest to be found in individual events, but also like football, the more you spend, the more you win. With a reasonable population and territory (hence not Benelux type countries), your chances of success are roughly equal to your GDP.
Heh, a German science/informative show tried to test the influence of technology, so they took some current athletes, gave them old sports gear and conditions, then let them try their best and compared it to the achievements from record breakers of the past. Even the sportspeople themselves seemed convinced that the technology helps them quite a bit afterwards. Running in old sports shoes on an ash track is quite a bit harder than having modern high tech shoes on a high tech track and so on. Then there are things like the leg prosthetics which may be better than actual legs or Michael Phelps' high-tech swimsuit and so on. Money and technology certainly play a role.