If all the athletes from Stanford had been their own country, they would have tied for 11th place in the medal standings at the 2016 Olympics. It’s an eye-opening statistic that has been made more jarring because of the recent decision by Stanford to remove nine Olympic sports from its varsity program. Two former Stanford athletes are spearheading a protest against the decision that will harm the U.S. Olympic team, which relies extensively on college sports to feed its pipeline. Of the 558 athletes the U.S. sent to Rio four years ago, 75% came out of the college sports system. Of the 121 medals the U.S. won, 85% came from college-trained athletes. Stanford placed 29 athletes on the U.S. team; 15 of them stood on the medals podium.