I do Monk as I don’t think they’re making informed or balanced choices. A lot of athlete’s aren’t very intelligent. They’re likely to have been involved in elite sport since their early teens and one of the universally accepted truths that has been drummed into them is that their coach is always right and should be obeyed. There are enough examples of people being convinced that something illogical is right while the body of evidence suggests otherwise so it’s not like humans aren’t prone to it. Pick a religion for the best example.

I agree with your point that that it’s then easy to perceive that the best athlete is the one that has access to the best resources. Whatever they may be. I think the best resources probably have access to the best athletes because of what they can offer a young athlete in terms of support at the beginning. So it’s a vicious circle.

It all comes back to us though. Everyone wants to see World Records, the greatest ever athletes, the greatest ever achievements etc etc and we’re all prepared to pay a premium to get them. Our demands as consumers of sport is faster than evolution so there’s only one way to keep pace to keep us interested and the sponsors to pay for it.