PLN 12

What matters today is the lost gold medal of Sven Kramer, the long track speed skater from the Netherlands. In what is possibly the biggest blunder of the games, Sven is disqualified from the 10,000 meter, the event in which he holds the world record. The Dutch skater was entering the last lap of the race with a commanding lead and was setting what would have been the gold medal time. Kramer was going down the back stretch of the oval, where skaters are to change lanes to even the distance. At the last second his coach, Kemkers, tells him to move to the inside lane. Kramer was supposed to be moving into the outside lane, but he assumed that his coach was right. He was then disqualified for being in the wrong lane. Kramer is a super star in the Netherlands, where the past time is speed skating. The 23 year old is already a millionaire from assorted sponsorships. It is said that the sponsorships are also on a bonus system, and seeing as he had already won gold in the 5,000 meter, winning the 10,000 would have given the kid almost a 300,000 euro bonus. The metal error by his coach lost him an Olympic Gold and almost half a million dollars. Now granted, Kramer probably should have been keeping track of his lane, but his coach should not have made the mistake in the first place. This whole scandal matters because Kramer holds the world record in the 10,000 meter race, and he deserved to win gold on the highest stage possible. This matters to me because of the sponsorships. No 23 year old should be making that much money; they would not know what to do with it. They have been playing their sport instead of going to school and gaining the knowledge of what to do with millions of dollars. It is not just him either; America is the worst at promoting sports before education. Young kids out of high school go into the NBA or MLB because they want the money. Students work harder at their sport than at school because they think that they have a shot at making it to the big time. Yet less than 10% of them will actually make it to a major league team. Americans lives revolve so much around sports and money that kids end up forgetting about what is important.