In Australia, the immediate answer to any sports challenge is that the Goverment should pour more money into it. 

By that standard we would expect that the U.S. must buy its Olympic dominance in the same way that China does- lots of Government money.

We would be wrong:

Alexander Bernard writes in the National Review:

 

 The United States, meanwhile applies a thoroughly free-market approach to athletics. The U.S. Olympic Committee is a non-profit organization that receives no funding from the U.S. government. Training of athletes is decentralized, occurring at universities strewn throughout the country and at corporate facilities such as the Nike Oregon Project. Independent leagues, operating without government support or sanction, exist in every state — the kind of leagues that are prohibited in China. Children — or, more realistically, their parents — pay to participate in these leagues. Talent develops bottom-up, as those with better athletic promise progress to more advanced leagues and ultimately find their way onto the Olympic team.  

Maybe the solution to Australia's perceived  Olympic disappointments is not more Government interventions but better sporting administration, better training, and better use of the resources we already have.

Read the full article here