A CASE STUDY

Looking at three top level training centres, this film explores the role that media, politics and money have come to play in today’s sports world. In Hyères, Daniel Morelon trains some of France’s track-cycling elite. When the cyclists are not riding, they compare the scant media attention they receive and their professional difficulties, with the means available to athletes of other sports. At the Bayern Football Club, investment and profitability are the key words. The young players give it their all, aware of the stakes, and of the sacrifices they will have to make to pursue the career they have chosen. In Istanbul, the Turkish weight-lifter Naïm Suleymanoglu stands to become the greatest weight-lifter in history. Young weight-lifters watch him and imitate him, yet not daring to speak to him or even dream of rising to his level.