What it takes to be in the 1% of the 1% and make the Summer Olympics


You will never compete in the summer Olympic games. Neither will I.

Out of the 7,021,836,029 people on planet earth this summer only about 10,500 athletes will compete for their countries in Rio (Down from the 10,950 in 2012 – but that’s a different story). That is 0.00015608 % of the earth’s popula1 percent pie graphtion, taking sig figs into account. 🙂

If you live in the United States our ratio of Olympic athletes to population is a bit higher.  We are sending 554 athletes to Rio, and with a population of 322,762,018 those 554 athletes represent 0.000172 % of our country.  47 of those 554 athletes are swimmers. 25 male, 22 Female.  The point? It is pretty darn tough to make the Olympic team.

If you and I won’t make the team who will?  Who decides who the 0.000172% will be?  The athletes do . . . that’s what makes the Olympics so special.

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