In the 19th century, organized sports was heavily the province of the well off. These days we often here about athletes who came from rather poor backgrounds.
How many top level athletes came from/or come from rich or well off (upper middle class or professional) backgrounds. (Please ignore the ones who are themselves children of top level sportsmen like Xabi Alonso and Frank Lampard).
The ones I can think off.
Hugh Lloris, the Frecnh International GK is the son of lawyers.
Gerard Pique Spain and Barcelona defender: Son of doctors
Pakistani international cricketer Shan Masood, son of a Bank owner.
Pete Sampars was the son of well off immigrants.
Depending on your definition of well off/rich, you’re already looking at a small sample. The potential for world class talent is also very small. Not much overlap.
There’s also opportunity. If you grow up playing tennis at the county club, you won’t find out you have the genes of a world class gymnast or cyclist.
Baseball player Mike Piazza’s father Vince was pretty well off with used car dealerships and real estate, although Vince’s businesses may have made him super wealthy when Mike was an adult. Vince’s childhood was Dodger manager Tommy Lasorda and Lasorda got the Dodgers to draft Mike on the 62nd round in the 1988 draft as a favor.
NBA player Bill Laimbeer’s father was pretty successful, although I never heard how much. Laimbeer would joke how he was the only NBA player making less than his father.
In Formula 1 in the past there were some drivers from wealthy families such as Nikki Lauda (Austrian banking), Peter Revson (Revlon cosmetics) and B Bira (royal family of Thailand, his paternal grandfather was King Mongkut of Anna and the King of Siam/The King and I fame). It is a question on how much family connections helped them at the top level.
Pete LaCock was a major league baseball player and the son of Peter Marshall, long-time host of The Hollywood Squares. LaCock was 14 when his father got the gig, so he certainly was well off from that time on.
Nephew ok? I don’t know what does his father do (from interviews I understand his mother was a SAHM - why does this get mentioned in interviews? Because of an ad they did together), but Rafa Nadal’s uncle and coach, Miguel Ángel Nadal, was a professional soccer player for Barça and Mallorca. He was the family’s “sporty uncle”, helping the kids try out different sports, and for a while had thought Rafa might be good at soccer. Eventually it turned out the kid was better at tennis.
Piqué’s parents aren’t doctors-plural. His father is a lawyer and his mother is the medical director for the Brain Damage unit in a private hospital. His maternal grandfather was a vicepresident of Barça. The family is old money on both sides.
Nadals coach was/is Toni Nadal, who is a different uncle from Miguel; although Miguel certainly did assist in Rafal’s development (and used his contacts to get Rafa through the door). Rafa is quite surprisingly, a Real Madrid fan.
Thanks for the heads up on Pique, Guy was born into money, made even more and married much more and she incidentally was Shakira. Oh and he has won a WC, a Euro, a fuckton of titles at Barca and Manchester United. Fuck him.
(His moms last name is “Bernabeu” right? Wonder how that goes down duing El Clasico).
BTW, just noticed, wrong forum. Mea Culpa, will report for move.
Paul Menard’s entire racing career, from Trans Am and through the various levels of NASCAR, have all been financed through his father, John Menard. Menard owned cars in the CART and IRL series for years before directing his efforts towards his son’s racing career. Menard owns a successful home improvement chain of stores in the midwest.
On a lesser note, there have been other race car drivers whose success was because of their name and the doors that it opened. Al Unser Jr., Kyle Petty, Dale Jarret, and probably the most famous of these, Dale Earnhardt Jr. There are many others. If it wasn’t for their fathers, some of these may never have had a chance to succeed in motor sports.
What about baseball players who came through Stanford (odd, a lot of former Indians from Stanford!) or Vanderbilt college ball? Should we assume they are well-off or are they more likely to be poor kids who got full ride scholarships to a prestigious non-sports school?
I’m not sure I’d classify Stanford as a non-sports school. While it is certainly academically prestigious, it consistently wins the Director’s Cup year after year. There are plenty of scholarship dollars there to go around.
Deadball era players Fred Glade and Ed Abbaticchio were known to play for the love of the game rather than money, the press dubbed the former “Millionaire Ballplayer”. Glade’s father made a fortune in the milling business and the Abbaticchios were in real estate, including at least one hotel.
Jordan Spieth’s dad is the CEO of a sports social media company. His mom is a computer engineer. Actually, I’d suspect many golfers come from pretty well-off families.
Brazilian footballer Kaka;s father was a civil engineer and therefore fairly well off.
Andrea Pirlo, the Italian midfield master, father owned several factories IIRC.
Pakistani cricket legend (and current opposition leader) Imran Khan’s father was an architect.
