The Olympics spark hope in many a child of going for the gold. Custom Flames Jersey . But in financially supporting those dreams, some parents are going for broke.For his 15-year old sons travel hockey team, Tim Richmeier was spending about $5,000 a season: using his tax refunds, halting contributions to his 401(k), and putting travel expenses on a credit card -- including $6,000 hes still paying off. Richmeier said it was a great experience for his child. But after four years, it was a financial relief when his son didnt make the team.I was kind of dreading the upcoming season, knowing Id go deeper in the hole, said Richmeier, a single father in Phoenix.Competitive youth sports in the U.S. are rising in popularity. The exclusive club and travel teams come with added coaching and intense competition, as well as much higher costs than a school or community team.A survey released Monday by TD Ameritrade of 1,000 parents whose children are involved in such elite endeavors finds most pay between $100 and $499 a month. For one in five, its more than $1,000.Some parents can absorb the cost, but others are working second jobs, depleting their savings or otherwise compromising their own financial well-being to fund the activities. In the survey, 60 percent say the expense has them concerned about their ability to save for the future.Parents largely say they dont regret the spending because of the physical, mental and emotional benefits for their children. But financial and athletic experts suggest parents make a more objective assessment of at what cost the kids are pursuing these dreams.Of nearly 8 million U.S. students currently participating in high school athletics, only 480,000 compete at the college level at an NCAA school, according to the organization. Few from that group will move on to compete at the Olympic or professional level.And parents hoping for a scholarship to offset their sacrifices may be disappointed. NCAA schools awarded more than $2.9 billion in athletics scholarships last year. But a full ride is rare, and a partial scholarship may come to a fraction of what it cost to get a child to that level.The presenting of those numbers doesnt discourage many people, its in the American character to go after it, said Tom Farrey, who leads the Sports & Society Program at the Aspen Institute. Farrey says the economic hurdles of the elite teams leave many kids behind, and its not always good for those who do participate.Parents are coming from a place of love, they want what is best for their kids, said Travis Dorsch, founding director of the Families in Sport Lab at Utah State University. Unfortunately they are misinformed.Specializing in just one sport early, common among elite team players, leads to greater burnout and an increased likelihood of injury, Dorsch said. And he found that families who made larger financial investments in a childs athletic participation led to kids feeling more pressure, less enjoyment and a lower commitment to the sport.Of the families in Dorschs research, which spanned many income and sport participation levels, more than half invested less than 1 percent of their gross income. But nearly 15 percent invested between 2 percent and 5 percent, and 3 percent invested more than 5 percent of their gross income.Even for those who can afford it, there is stress.Lisa Williams of Wilmette, Illinois, sees the $2,000 or so she spends each season on her daughters soccer team not as an investment in a sports future but in her childs skill set off the field. In her affluent neighborhood there is a certain expectation of excellence and the assumption if your child plays sports that theyll do so on a travel or elite team.Some of it is parent peer pressure, do you want to be the parent who doesnt send their kid to the extra training and the summer camps and the extra clinics? Williams said. You dont want people to think, `Oh, she doesnt love her kid.That pressure is part of a shift in parenting and culture over recent decades, experts say.We tend to get very emotionally invested in the life of our kids in sports, it makes us more vulnerable to making questionable decisions, said Mark Hyman, who teaches in the business of sports program at George Washington University.He notes that many people have an economic interest in parents spending more on sports -- from elite coaches to the facilities that host the tournaments. So parents may be urged to make decisions that are not based on neutral input.The challenge is to recognize sports for kids are great but they are great because they give you these positive lessons they can carry on through life, Hyman said. You should never do sports as an investment. ... If you do that you are almost certain to be disappointed and to turn your kids off sports.Debbie Amorelli of Upton, Massachusetts, says she wrestles with how much she and her husband spend on hockey participation for her 17-year old son, who hopes to play at college. The fees, gear and travel add up to about $10,000 a year. They pay for it using an inheritance from her father, but without it Amorelli says she doesnt know what they would have done.The experiences he is having are priceless, she said. But we keep saying to him: This is essentially coming out of your college fund, this is money we could be putting away.Amorellis son, a junior in high school, may need to keep playing for a year or two after graduation to make a college team. Thats an expense theyre unsure about.We have no idea if this is going to turn into anything other than literally money down the drain, she said. Miikka Kiprusoff Flames Jersey . After a lengthy wait, persistent rain finally forced the postponement of the Nationals game against the Miami Marlins on Saturday night. The teams, and a few thousand fans, waited nearly four hours from the 7:05 scheduled start time before an announcement was made shortly before 11 p. Mikael Backlund Jersey . As the crowd erupted, Davis knocked the ball off the glass and back into his hands. With 1:14 to go in overtime, Davis sixth block also became his 17th rebound. That, along with his 32 points -- which tied a career high -- proved too much for Denver to overcome, and the Pelicans held on for their third straight victory, 111-107 on Sunday night. http://www.jerseyofficialhockeyflames.com/johnny-gaudreau-hockey-jersey/ . Gerald Green and Miles Plumlee? Green had bounced around the NBA when he wasnt playing overseas. The Pacers gave up on Plumlee after just one season. Now Green and Plumlee are key cogs in the Suns surprising breakout season. With one performance left on the biggest night of her career, Laurie Hernandez paused, placed her right hand over her belly and closed her eyes. She inhaled. Paused. Exhaled. She felt her belly expand and contract. She became aware of her breath. And slowly, the anxiety and adrenaline melted away. Then she raised that same arm toward the judges and turned to face the beam.I was really calm before beam, Hernandez said. I was able to calm myself down and go out there and enjoy the moment. Its a technique Hernandez learned from sports psychology coach Robert Andrews, who heads Houstons Institute of Sports Performance and also works with three-time world champion Simone Biles. Watch Hernandez closely before she presents to the judges at each rotation and there she is: hand over belly, gaze softened yet focused, her shoulders rising and falling with each inhalation.And I pray, she said.Her pre-performance ritual is working. Over two days of competition, Hernandez -- the freshest face on this powerhouse team -- was a rock. She was as consistent as any woman in the competition, her confidence and composure decades beyond her 16 years. As Hernandez moved from rotation to rotation, she energized the crowd like a portable charging station. Her floor routine is so electric it should be measured in wattage.When we choreographed her routine, we tried to focus on her personality and let her be herself, said Maggie Haney, Hernandezs longtime coach at MG Elite in Morganville, New Jersey. Besides being a showcase for Hernandezs outsized personality and dance ability, her floor routine, which she debuted at national championships in June, also pays homage to her 10-year career in gymnastics.You can see dance choreography from her floor routines when she was 9, 10, 11, all through the years, Haney said. But with added sass, because she is naturally so sassy.That sass is what has made Hernandez, the first Latina gymnast since Annia Hatch in 2004 to represent the U.S. in womens gymnastics, a thunder-stealing crowd favorite. But it is her maturity and consistency that landed her in second place overall and a spot on the U.S. team.When she stuck her double pike dismount after performing what she called the best beam routine of her life, the crowd broke into the same raucous, foot-stomping singsong it had earrlier in the night, when Hernandez prepared to perform on floor. Joe Nieuwendyk Jersey. Lau-rie! Lau-rie! Lau-rie!The chorus grew only louder when Hernandezs score of 15.70, the best of the weekend on beam, flashed overhead.After beam, I couldnt hear anything, Hernandez said. I was still in focus. I cant hear anything when Im focused. But before floor, I heard them chanting my name.Six months ago, casual gymnastics fans didnt know the her name. By Sunday, Laurie Hernandez?was a star. From the outside, Hernandezs rise seems meteoric, an overnight sensation amid a boldfaced team of Olympic and world champions. But to those close to her, this moment has been inevitable.She has been in our program for so long. She grew up in our system, said U.S. national team coordinator Martha Karolyi, who remembers first seeing Hernandez at a national developmental camp when Hernandez was about 9. Its not like she just popped up here.Hernandez began appearing on Olympic watch lists last year after winning the 2015 junior national championship. She turned senior at the beginning of 2016 and celebrated her 16th birthday on June 9, but her relative lack of elite international experience makes what she has done over the past six months even more incredible. From March until June, she took a trio of bronze medals in the all-around at the City of Jesolo Trophy in Italy, Pac Rim Championships and the national championships.She proved herself over these two days and throughout the year, Karolyi said. She had no falls in any competitions that she presented this year. She had very good consistency.In San Jose, Hernandez was the top finisher both nights on beam, an apparatus that took down both Gabby Douglas and Biles during two nights of competition, and finished third on floor, fourth on vault and second in the all-around. In the Olympics three-up, no-drop team competition format, Hernandez could compete as many as three events and has a legitimate shot at being one of only two U.S. women who will contest the individual all-around.Thats what we want, said Haney, That would be the best thing ever.A few months ago, Hernandez wasnt even part of that conversation. Today, crowds are chanting her name. 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