Training Your Competition! Why the United States Trains Olympians from Other Nations

Studies have shown that a nation's Olympic success is related to their income and population. Given this research, it should be expected that the United States has the resources to support and train a collection of dominant Olympic athletes. What may be surprising is that universities in the United States devote resources to support and train Olympic athletes for other nations. In a study of women's gymnasts at American universities, we seek to explain this behavior. Along the way, we will also show that even though women's college gymnastics is often referred to as a "non-revenue" sport, there are many gymnasts that we found to be exploited in the past by the universities that employ their talent.