But overall it sounds like a perfect system - perhaps each country would have to make some adjustments due to its specificity and geographical conditions.
OK, but for example you have teams in cross-country skiing or alpine skiing and analyzing it coolly, it would be more profitable to invest everything in skeleton and short track from winter sports.
It's still possible to study or be a doctor or lawyer and be a national team member rowing, because it is not really an all year sport like many others. Probably only about 18 very intense months out of the 47 month Olympiad cycle.
British lottery was specifically created to finance sport, but even with lots of money we still must make choices - bobsleigh but not luge, triathlon but not wrestling, artistic but not rhythmic gymnastics etc.
I've heard about this lottery, but still, for example, the prestige of studying at Harvard and becoming, for example, a doctor or lawyer in the US + potential earnings are higher than a difficult sports career. It's always a matter of priorities. From what I see the Netherlands copied this idea with the lottery from the UK (the NL team also has the logo with the local lottery on their shirts)? I`m also curious why, if this idea with the lottery is so great in the UK and the Netherlands, other countries do not copy this model, e.g. Germany, which on paper should win the most medals from Europe at the Olympic Games - recently they won less than the Netherlands!!!
Our rowers are supported by lottery money, so are effectively making maybe double pr triple the average income of someone else their age, plus whatever extra sponsorship they can arrange for themselves.
You'd have to ask some of the UK and Dutch users here how their nations deal with this problem, if anyone knows? Because clearly those 2 countries are doing the best in Europe and probably don't experience such an exodus of their best young rowing athletes to US universities (Germany has also been experiencing a crisis in this sport in recent years).
I think that nowadays people can play sports, e.g. with defibrillators, so it's not a big problem and in her case the disease is probably not that serious. For her, it may even be better that it happened now rather than during the Olympic season, even if she had to miss a large part of the season.