In honor of the Olympics, I’d like to know just what the odds of even making it to them are.
That would vary greatly depending on event, one’s health, and available resources, and country representing.
But if all things were equal…
But there are just over 11,000 athletes competing in Rio this year.
There are apox 7.125 billion people on earth. Not all nations are represented, but someone from a country with no IOC, could probably find a way to compete under another country’s banner. ISTR it happening before.
SO the chance are pretty damn slim
It seems to me that the proper baseline isn’t the total population of the planet, but the number of people who even try out for the Olympics, which makes the odds much better (especially for less popular sports).
But, the odds of any of us making the Olympics are pretty slim.
The easiest, perhaps only, way a non-elite athlete can compete is to take advantage of the host nation’s automatic wild card right to have representative on the field, even if as in some sports a whole round of qualifiers have already taken place pre-games.
In 2000 a group of Australians competed in handball. Handball has zero presence in Australia, so a bunch of regular normal non-elite athletes formed a team, got accredited by the international body and were guaranteed a place in competition.
The competition consisted of the 11 ranking world teams + host, who lost all five of their matches. Did they care? Doubt it.
Moderator Action
Since this is about the Olympics and the Olympics is about sports, let’s move this to the Game Room (from General Questions).
If you want to know your chances the simplest thing to do is get your VO2 max tested - no one thing matters more than the rate at which your body is able to process oxygen.
When London got the Games teams of people went around schools and advertised in communities asking if people wanted to know their potential - picked up a whole bunch who have since become rowers and track cyclists.