Wealth & Money Quote by Bill Toomey

“I think that money has changed my sport” lands like a quiet confession from someone who’s watched the playing field tilt under his feet. Bill Toomey isn’t railing against success; he’s registering a shift in gravity. Coming from an athlete - and a decathlete, a symbol of all-around craft rather than a single-marketable trick - the line reads as a lament for what gets rewarded now: not the hardest thing to do, but the easiest thing to sell.

The wording matters. “I think” softens the blow, a habitual athlete’s modesty that also signals how hard it is to criticize the system without sounding ungrateful. “My sport” is possessive in a way that’s almost elegiac. It implies belonging, stewardship, a culture built around training, competition, and peer respect. Money, by contrast, is faceless. It doesn’t “join” the sport or “support” it; it “changes” it - a verb that suggests structural rewiring rather than simple growth.

Context does the rest. Toomey came up in an era when Olympic ideals still publicly emphasized amateurism and national pride, even as commercial interests lurked. By the late 20th century, sponsorships, TV rights, shoe contracts, and brand-driven narratives became the main event. The subtext: athletes start performing not just for medals but for visibility; governing bodies optimize for broadcasts; niche events get squeezed while “content” thrives. Toomey’s sentence is small, but it names the big trade: more opportunity and resources, paid for with a loss of innocence about what competition is for.