You're Right lil_brown_bat. The original purpose of the Olympics was individual competition between amateur athletes. It was inevitable that the number of medals won by a country would be promoted by the media and national chauvinists as an unofficial symbol of national superiority. This was exacerbated during the cold war by the communist countries practice of selecting and training potential Olympians on a full time basis while giving them token jobs to maintain the appearence of amateurism. The IOC then decided "If you can't lick 'em, join 'em" so today we have professional athletes trading countries just for a chance to "be there". Might as well get used to it.
posted by wildcat55 at 01:42 PM on August 19, 2008
Olympic Traitor?
You're Right lil_brown_bat. The original purpose of the Olympics was individual competition between amateur athletes. It was inevitable that the number of medals won by a country would be promoted by the media and national chauvinists as an unofficial symbol of national superiority. This was exacerbated during the cold war by the communist countries practice of selecting and training potential Olympians on a full time basis while giving them token jobs to maintain the appearence of amateurism. The IOC then decided "If you can't lick 'em, join 'em" so today we have professional athletes trading countries just for a chance to "be there". Might as well get used to it.