Dear Editor,
Traditionally, the summer Olympics was about the love of sport and the glory of representing your country, and not about the love of money.
In came TV in the 1980s. Since then, the new thinking is to bring in viewers with the lure of having the most famous athletes — the professionals.
At first the International Olympic Committe added basketball. Then they included tennis and golf, each with its own separate TV coverage. In the meantime, baseball was excluded much to the consternation of Cuba, which had hitherto dominated the sport at the amateur level. But, not to worry, baseball is being reinstated at the next Olympics, but with the addition of a full complement of professionals from the American league.
In my opinion, professionals should not be included in the Olympics because they have an unfair advantage. In one Olympics we were treated to the spectacle of the US basketball team of well-paid NBA stars (the Dream Team) beating up on the part-timers from Angola — a non-contest.
Those who benefit from including professionals are the commercial agents, who make the commercial deals, the professionals themselves, who garner massive endorsements, and the rich countries from which they come, which can tout a record haul of medals.
This is yet another example of the rules favouring the rich countries and, unfortunately, the rest don’t seem to mind.
Victor A Dixon
victoradixon@yahoo.com
Traditionally, the summer Olympics was about the love of sport and the glory of representing your country, and not about the love of money.
In came TV in the 1980s. Since then, the new thinking is to bring in viewers with the lure of having the most famous athletes — the professionals.
At first the International Olympic Committe added basketball. Then they included tennis and golf, each with its own separate TV coverage. In the meantime, baseball was excluded much to the consternation of Cuba, which had hitherto dominated the sport at the amateur level. But, not to worry, baseball is being reinstated at the next Olympics, but with the addition of a full complement of professionals from the American league.
In my opinion, professionals should not be included in the Olympics because they have an unfair advantage. In one Olympics we were treated to the spectacle of the US basketball team of well-paid NBA stars (the Dream Team) beating up on the part-timers from Angola — a non-contest.
Those who benefit from including professionals are the commercial agents, who make the commercial deals, the professionals themselves, who garner massive endorsements, and the rich countries from which they come, which can tout a record haul of medals.
This is yet another example of the rules favouring the rich countries and, unfortunately, the rest don’t seem to mind.
Victor A Dixon
victoradixon@yahoo.com