How college sports juiced Olympic development

How did the U.S. become the Olympic powerhouse it is today? Cold War competition. The Soviet Union sponsored their athletes. But America wanted its athletes to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. It birthed an unexpected accelerator of Olympic development: College football. Stay with us now.<br /><br />On today’s show, how college football became an Olympic development engine. And how that engine might not be running as smoothly as it once did.<br /><br /><strong>Related episodes: </strong><br /><a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/08/01/1197967951/paris-2024-olympics-hosting-costs" target="_blank">Why the Olympics cost so much</a><br /><a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/08/08/1197968045/paris-olympics-trademarks-enforcement-intellectual-property" target="_blank">You can't spell Olympics without IP</a><br /><a href="https://www.npr.org/2026/01/30/nx-s1-5693173/a-huge-eu-india-deal-heated-rivalry-and-a-hefty-200k-to-olympians" target="_blank">A huge EU-India deal, Heated Rivalry, and a hefty $200k to Olympians</a><br /><a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/08/05/1025310133/why-host-the-olympics" target="_blank">Why Host The Olympics?</a><br /><a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/07/19/1112316993/the-monetization-of-college-sports" target="_blank">The monetization of college sports</a><br /><br /><em>For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at </em><a href="http://plus.npr.org/" target="_blank"><em>plus.npr.org</em></a><em>.</em> <em>Fact-checking by </em><a href="https://www.npr.org/people/1268825622/sierra-juarez" target="_blank"><em>Sierra Juarez</em></a><em>. Music by </em><a href="https://dropelectric.bandcamp.com/" target="_blank"><em>Drop Electric</em></a><em>. Find us: </em><a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@planetmoney" target="_blank"><em>TikTok</em></a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/planetmoney/" target="_blank"><em>Instagram</em></a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/planetmoney" target="_blank"><em>Facebook</em></a>, <a href="https://www.npr.org/newsletter/money" target="_blank"><em>Newsletter</em></a><em>.</em><br /><br />See <a href="https://pcm.adswizz.com">pcm.adswizz.com</a> for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.<br /><br /><a href="https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy">NPR Privacy Policy</a>