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As a member of the U.S. basketball team, Ray Lumpp won gold at the 1948 Olympic Games in London. Lumpp played in an era where amateurism was central to the Olympic ideal. "Even if I just wanted to play professional basketball ... just by saying I wanted to be a pro, I would have been removed," Lumpp said. "The Olympics was supposed to be for fun and games -- no compensation. I was a gold medal Olympic champion, but I owed money."
Updated at 10:05 a.m. ET: LONDON — On August 14, 1948, Ray Lumpp stood in London's Wembley Stadium. As "The Star-Spangled Banner" played and "Old Glory" fluttered in the breeze, an Olympic gold medal was placed round his neck.
"To be in the Olympics was a dream come true," Lumpp, 89, told NBCNews.com from his Long Island home. "To receive a gold medal … it still shines in my heart."
In the aftermath of World War II, parts of London still lay in ruins, food was rationed and the "strictly amateur" athletes were put up in basic accommodation. But "The Austerity Games" remain a special event for people like Lumpp.
In sharp contrast to 1948, the London 2012 Olympics has a total budget in excess of $17 billion, a sum greater than the GDP of many of the 200-plus competing nations. About 9 million tickets have been sold and a global TV audience of billions is expected to watch more than 10,000 athletes compete.
Sixty-four years after competing in London, four gold-medal-winning athletes recall the excitement of the summer Olympics
Amid the glorification of multi-millionaires competing in sports including basketball, tennis and soccer, the sea of corporate sponsorship and fortress-style security — has the Olympic spirit been forgotten? What would previous Olympians make of today’s event?
Would the Ancient Greeks — who staged the first Olympic Games in 776 B.C. — give their blessing or call down the wrath of Zeus? And what would the founder of the modern Games, French aristocrat Pierre de Coubertin, make of the demise of the amateur ethos?
Courtesy of Ray Lumpp
Ray Lumpp, seen here in 1948, is due to travel to London to attend this summer's Olympics.
Lumpp played in an era where, unlike today, amateurism was central to the Olympic ideal.
"Even if I just wanted to play professional basketball, I would have been removed from the American team — just by saying I wanted to be a pro, I would have been removed," Lumpp told NBCNews.com. "The Olympics was supposed to be for fun and games — no compensation."
"I was married with one child and one on the way. I was a gold medal Olympic champion, but I owed money," he said. "You couldn't have sponsors, you couldn't do this, you couldn't do that ... you have to live and you have to eat."
More London 2012 coverage from NBCNews.com
After Lumpp returned to the U.S., he signed a professional contract with the New York Knicks and was soon "out of hock."
'For the love of it'
While he said that the acceptance of professionals into the games was a good idea — meaning countries could send their best competitors and a level playing field for all — he added that "sometimes money is too important, you lose the ideals of the Games."
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"The Games are about taking part, peace and understanding, and competing against one another, not fighting … playing against each other for the love of it," he said.
"[In 1948] we had great admiration for the British people. Whatever they had, that was it … but whatever they had, they shared it and put on a great Games under the conditions,” he said.
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Lumpp said the success of the 1948 Games – the first since Munich 1936 in Hitler’s Germany — had been vital.
"After that 12-year period when there were no Olympics, it was important, very important, that the next Games be a success because it would affect the future of the Games … because people might say 'it's not worth it,' and it could fade away,” he said.
As the U.S. women's soccer team kicked off a game against France, one athlete from Greece was removed after sending what officials are calling a racist tweet. A further warning to athletes: the World Anti-Doping Agency said more than 100 athletes caught doping were sanctioned in the months leading up to the Olympics. NBC's Kevin Tibbles reports.
The gap between Games was somewhat longer when Coubertin hit upon the idea of recreating the evemt.
The Christian Roman Emperor Theodosius had decreed in 393 A.D. that "pagan cults" such as the Olympic Games would no longer be permitted. Some 1,503 years later, the first modern event was held in Athens.
Modern Games born from war
Despite the emphasis on promoting global harmony, Coubertin’s big idea was born out of a war.
"It may be a little bit disappointing. You may think it's a product of peace," Dikaia Chatziefstathiou, an expert on the Olympics and an academic at Canterbury Christ Church University in England, told NBCNews.com.
France had not long been defeated in the 1870-1871 war against Prussia and there was concern that the country’s youth were "not very active," she said. "The French government worried that the army wasn't strong enough."
Coubertin, an expert on education, was brought in to shake things up and, on a fact-finding mission to England, he noted the emphasis on studying Ancient Greece and Rome at the country’s private schools, and was also impressed by the emphasis on sport and "muscular Christianity."
This, he thought, could be the answer to France’s diminished military might.
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But the late 19th century was also the so-called Age of Optimism when it was hoped that the world could put an end to war, disease and other great scourges. International movements such as the Scouts, the international Esperanto language, the YMCA and others sprang up "all about making society and the world a more peaceful place,” Chatziefstathiou said.
"He [Coubertin] came to the idea that actually sport can be used to have a peaceful celebration among the nations because he saw the power of sport,” Chatziefstathiou said. "He said 'Why not use sport and education to actually unite nations around the world?'"
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The idea caught the world’s imagination, but the first Olympiad in 1896 was a very different games to 2012 or even 1948.
There were no women. "He [Coubertin] really didn't want women to sweat. He didn't want women to have any physical exertion," Chatziefstathiou said, explaining this in terms of the social norms of the aristocracy of the time.
For the first time ever, all 205 countries competing in the Olympic games are sending female athletes. NBC's Meredith Vieira reports and speaks with sprinter Tahmina Kohistani, the sole woman on Afghanistan's Olympic team.
Also, most of the 1896 competitors were members of the upper classes and, if the right sort of person turned up, they just might find themselves allowed to take part.
George Stuart Robertson was one such athlete. He wrote an Ancient Greek ode that was recited at the end of the 1896 games and won a bronze medal in the doubles tennis. He also took part in the discus, which was perhaps a mistake, as he is still on record as achieving the worst-ever throw of about 27-and-a-half yards.
London Stereoscopic Company / Getty Images
Crowds walk around the Olympic Stadium in Athens during the 1896 Summer Games.
However -- in a sign of the Olympics' ability to break barriers — one of the heroes of 1896 was a Greek peasant called Spyros Louis, winner of the marathon.
"He became a big symbol of the Games … because without money, without preparation he came and ran in his traditional [Greek] clothing," Chatziefstathiou said.
While Coubertin subscribed to amateurism, she said she did not think he would not be appalled by the money in today’s Games. "If he saw that the movement wouldn't really survive without commercialism … I don't think he would be against commercialism with controls," she said.
Chatziefstathiou’s interest in the Games extends beyond the purely academic. She will be one of scores of dancers from all over the world in Friday's Opening Ceremony and was enthused by the "joy" among them at a practice held Monday.
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"If Coubertin came back [today], he would absolutely love the spirit of the people, and how many people of all ages, all nationalities are all there and enjoying it, and really actually believing it [the Olympic spirit]," she said.
Concerns over corruption, such as betting scandals, might be a worry, but Coubertin would be proud of how "his baby" had grown, she said.
"He wouldn't say 'Oh my God, this is a monstrosity' because he was so keen to keep the movement going," Chatziefstathiou said. "I think he would be absolutely over the moon."
East London, which will host the Olympic Games, boasts a colorful history. NBC News' Jim Maceda reports.
The participation of women, however, might prove too big a step for a man of his background, she suggested. "I don't think he would like this. He would be able to adapt to many things, but this is a spectacle I don't think he would be keen to see."
Ancient Games: Naked and men-only
Most Ancient Greeks were similarly against women at the Olympic Games, and to a much greater degree. With the exception of the priestess of Demeter, who oversaw events for religious reasons, any woman found watching the events faced being killed.
However, at least one female spectator is said to have survived the experience.
Kallipateira, the mother of a boxer, sneaked in dressed as a man to watch her son compete, Armand D’Angour, a fellow and tutor in classics at Jesus College, Oxford University, told NBCNews.com.
"Then when her son wins, she jumps up with delight and gives herself away as a woman," he said.
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Summoned by the judges, she told them how sport was part of her and her family's life, saying "this is who I am." And the judges, D’Angour said, decided to let her off.
The idea of female athletes would have been shocking for most Greeks, "apart from one city state, which was Sparta," he said.
The Trustees of the British Museum
This marble statue of an athlete stooping to throw the discus is one of several Roman copies made of a lost bronze originally crafted in the 5th century BC by the sculptor Myron.
In Sparta, women had a degree of equality and were known to be "very sporty."
"Spartan women were considered to be women with six-packs — strong, not necessarily beautiful, and quite scary," D’Angour said.
However, all Ancient Greeks would have been more in tune with the today’s Olympics when it came to ideas about money.
D’Angour said athletes were sponsored by their cities and spent years in training.
Tony Duffy / ALLSPORT, Getty Images
How has life treated the many U.S. Olympians who have dazzled and inspired us over the years? Find out in this handy then-and-now roundup.
"And of course if they won, they were feted, celebrated and odes were written for them — an expensive business. They would be fed at public expense for the remainder of their lives. There was a lot of money in it," he added.
Flame 'nothing to do with Ancient Greece'
The amateur ideal or so-called “Corinthian spirit” was “a bit of an invention really,” D’Angour said.
Other modern inventions include the Olympic flame — "that’s nothing to do with Ancient Greece, it comes from the idea of the eternal flame in Rome" — and the Olympic rings, he said.
D’Angour, author of Ancient Greek odes to the Athens and London Olympics, said Ancient Greeks would be shocked by "the completely irreligious" nature of the modern games.
"Zeus, the head of their gods, was very much in the center of the games," he said. A central message was "as great as human beings strive to be, they can never be as great as the gods."
The Trustees of the British Museum
This large mosaic of Hercules, the legendary founder of the Olympic Games and patron of athletes, dates from the Roman period.
And they might also be disappointed that the athletes were wearing any clothes.
"They competed naked — you’d see a lot of dangly bits. We don’t really know the origins of that. One story says a competitor in a running race tripped over something he was wearing, and after that they decided everyone should go naked," D’Angour said.
"I think it was to do with a celebration of the body beautiful. They were keen on the beauty of the bodies, shining, oiled bodies with fantastic musculature and beautiful balance," he said.
Get the latest results from NBCOlympics.com
But overall D'Angour said he thought that any Ancient Greeks transported to London 2012 be pleasantly surprised.
"The ambition to do well, the striving to achieve excellence in a sport … Let’s say they got over the fact they were living in a different century, I think they would find it fairly familiar and would be excited," he said.
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They might be a little bemused by events such as synchronized swimming, he said, but the 100 meters and the world’s fastest man, Usain Bolt, would likely be popular. But even Bolt would be measured against ancient heroes, whose true speed can only be guessed at.
"I think what they would feel is 'this chap [Bolt] is a bloody fast runner' but – because they didn’t have records — they would say 'Diagoras,' — who ran in 426 BC — 'was pretty good too, I can tell you,'" D’Angour said.
And there might be a few requests for one ancient favorite, chariot racing, to be restored.
"That would be fantastic, wouldn’t it?" D’Angour said. "Can you imagine? It'd be like Ben Hur all over again."
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Leave a Comment:
My greatest issue is national pride and presenting a consistent national image while participating in the olympics. So long as all of the professional athletes can keep it genuinely an olympic experience and not turn it into a pro media frenzy, then I think it's ok. I wouldn't want a pro athlete making the hundreds of actual amateurs look bad due to something stupid they do. The fact is that there are many professional sports in the world that are olympic sports (basketbal, soccer, etc.). Traditionally they are the national pride games, so I'm not surprised or against using pros whom want to play if every other country will do so too. I'd prefer an all amateur team, but I realize that won't happen.
Although I don't care for basketball and having the US a completly professional all-star basketball team seems lame when put up against teams from countries without professional players (I do know that many are essentially the same), but I don't think it's changed the idea of the olympics. They seem to have a good time and put out a reasonable image of the US. Keep doing that.
If you look at many other sports you'll note the numerous athletes working a 9-5 job and chasing their olympic dream. The fact is that the US doesn't have a nationally sponsored team, it's through private donations. So many athletes live average lives and train their hearts and bodys out to get a shot- that's awesome.
The thing I have more of a problem with is state sponsored olympic teams as they tend to lead to communist nations having "camps" for athletes. If you'll recall Russia and China are notorious for doing this to kids in the name of developing national heros. They took the kids away and all they did was train them to perform.
I would like the athletes to go really old-school like they did in the original Olympics by competing in their events while naked.
The olympics totally lost my interest when they started allowing professional athletes to compete.
I can careless about sports, I don't see anything productive about it, I think that is one of the reasons America is in the state it is.
The olympics have devolved into just another way to push product.
In reply to Maddog : I totally agree with you. I haven't watched an Olympic Games in years.
I do remember when it was amateurs that competed. I remember when these athletes practiced early in the morning before going to their jobs and after at night. I have deep respect for them, not so much for the spoiled athletes of today who are professionals or the ones paid and housed on my taxpayer dime to practice all day long, have all kinds of sponsors and lucrative deals.
The modern (meaning recent) Olympics have killed the spirit.
I don't even watch anymore the opening ceremonies which have become themselves competitions from one game to the other to be more elaborate, more beautiful, to show off to the world, to top the previous openings.
It is also nice how countries like the U.S. get athletes from other countries and give them citizenship just so they can compete for the U.S.A. It is good for the athletes involved, they get a great deal out of it, but is this really what the spirit of the games is about. Recruiting foreign nationals to boost your own roster. I dont think the founder of the recent games would agree with this practice.
I also got a kick out of the fact that the U.S. uniforms were made in china and the beret makes them look french lol.
Sam- What do you propose as an alternative for the millions of people whom currently participate in sports (for health, for community, for friendship, for an alternative to hanging out on the streets)? If sports essentially stink, what would be some better uses for their time?
On the olypmpics, you have to accesp that they are an interational festival of competition and national pride- and it's a money maker. Just look at who gets the games- countries with money. You won't be seeing the Olympics in Ethiopia because they can't afford the huge venue development costs, nor does the IIOC want to vacation in Ethiopia.
The decision to allow "professionals" to compete was a good one, IMO. When the change was made, you had situations in many countries where the "amateur" athletes ostensibly had jobs, yet were still able to train and practice up to 16 hours per day. They would be competing with athletes who would be working a full time job for 8 hours, and then have to compete. The major focus would be how to get around the "amateur" rules, while the IOC spent too much of its time arbitrarily disqualifying people.
IMO, the level of competition is much better under the modern rules. You really do get to see some of the very best athletes in the world compete against each other on the world stage. With close to 100,000 athletes taking part, representing 204 countries, this years Olympics will showcase most of the very best in each competition.
As to athletes choosing to "change countries" in order to compete, I say good for them. Whether it is because the country they are from does not have the facilities, they want to compete for a different country where they have a greater opportunity to be on an Olympic team, or if it is simply because they find that they will be able to convert their athletic abilities into money after the games better in a different country, I say more power to them. When you are one of the 100,000 competitors out of the six billion people on the planet, you do have the right to try to be the very best and make what money you can.
I'm sorry to say this but the present Olympics are the biggest co job on the planet.
Have absolutely zero interrest in the games. And for that matter zero interrest in ALL professional games.
Opium for the masses, like religion. Times are tough and yet the sheeples have enough money to blow on sports.
Tax payer rip off nothing more. Building giant edifices that will never or seldom being used after the 3 weeks of the games for the egomaniacs that run the games all at the expense of the tax payer.
Stop supporting the games.
The media and the talking heads have ruined the experience for me. I want to see the games, not that POS bob costas telling us every feel good story that comes down the pike. Show me the sports, full matches, not just highlites, and then back to bob for the rest of the hour.
I'm with you on the US basketball team. The Olympics should go back to having only amateur athletes competing. I remember watching the 1980 US Olympic hockey team play and win it all. That was the most exciting Olympic experience I've ever witnessed. Who cares what the other countries of the world do? The US should only have amateurs competing. I would much rather watch a bunch of US college basketball players taking on the world than a bunch of pro basketball entertainers.
I'm split on the matter. Certain events/sports clearly these guys are not pros (as it is the only time most of us watch some of these sports) but others they are. I think alot stems from the communist days when they would train citizens 24/7 but not have the pro title when in fact they were. To me its not that big of a deal having the pros go as long as long as they don't expect any special treatment and keep out of trouble (assuming we pick the pros with best talent, sportsmanship, and record off the court/field). More than anything I'm tired of how commercialized it has become. Only McD's food? Only on one station (NBC)? I'm fine with a flagship sponsor and station but others should get to join in to help financially and show some other sports as well. Tempted to say bid on the sports that way maybe the team can get more $$? It would be nice to see that change, that and no longer let RL be the clothing sponsor for opening games, uniforms get worse every year.
It is time
The Olympics should be about amateur athletes not pro players, although I assume today it is hard to draw a line with who is "professional" and who is not, what with the sponsorships and such that go to the athletes.
I can't wait for golf to be added. Or how about horseshoes too!
Both are very competitive.
Golf sucks
How about badminton and shuffleboard? Tiddley winks and bingo?
:D
jerryb: Badminton is an Olympic sport.
Lawn darts.
Texas Holdem and Risk would be realistic additions
It is only a matter of time before videogames become an olympic event. It will look like something from King Pin when one of the characters says it is intimidating to be in the presence of such greatness. As the camera pans around nothing but middle aged over weight men eating hot dogs and chugging beer lol.
Nice to know a "Christian" Roman Emperor decided in 393 AD that the Olympics are pagan and cancelled the games. Is this still the "Christian" attitude, or did that change since then?
Shhh. They have short memories, please dont remind them.
Really, to be quite honest, WHO CARES? I kind of feel somewhat like Mooochelle. To paraphrase, "Since November 2008, I am not at all proud of my Country". Barry Borrock Soetoro Hussein Osama is doing all that he can to destroy America as we once knew it. Olympics....I could care less, I just want my Country back.
Mr Harley;;
How the heck does it feel to hate?...
I never had that feeling myself!
Can't imagine letting ANYONE have that effect on me.
Olympics for Americans are a complete joke....... a bunch of professional athletes competing against what...... amatuers from tiny countries around the world.
Take a spoiled brat like Michael Phelps, who decides he can't "walk" in the opening ceremonies.... too taxing on his body. The whole set up from years ago was for this event to be exclusive to non-professional athletes.
Take another idiot like Hope Solo.... shooting her mouth off about being drunk and having sex in the Olympic village....... for what...... gee lets see can you say publicity..... two sorry examples of what represents the "greatest country in the world" PATHETIC.
Would love to see these two fall flat on their face along with the men's dream team who by the way would have gotten crushed by the only real dream team of professional athletes from 1992, led by another classless street punk, who can't keep his hands off of other women besides his wife... AKA Kobe Bryant.
GO USA...... Unreal Stupid Asses
Well said....Very well said.......
Spoiled, sophomoric, and immature.
An embarrassment to say the least.
But sooooooo American.
Totally agree with you. Wish we could get back to Pierre de Coubertin's spirit.
There are many "professional athletes" on the US Olympic team. There are also many who most people would call amateurs. The removal of the arbitrary distinctions have allowed more of the best athletes to participate.
I don't agree with the outspoken opinions of some of the athletes who have let their egos grow more than their abilities. As to the antics of the athletes in the Olympic villages, I really can't blame them. If you put 100,000 young, healthy, virile people into a relatively small space, I would fully expect them to have sex. That is why Daytona Beach, Padre Island and Cancun Mexico are so popular every year.
The olympic "spirit" may be alive in some athletes, but the "spirit" of the games has long passed. The olympics have degenerated to political theatre. The events have been bastardized by technology. Millions are spent on designing swimsuits and techniques that minimize "drag" and increase speed. The olympics were meant to provide a forum for "natural athletes", not professionally trained and equiped professionals. Countries wait years and spend hundreds of millions of dollars on facilities that will be abandoned after the games. Many fall into disrepair. Now this the terrorist element in the picture, costs and risks have skyrocketed. In the final analysis, most people don't care who wins how many medals. Sad commentary for a once glorious event that was supposed to bring people and countries together.
Amen !!!
So true. I agree with you totally
I'm surprised that the world hasn't demanded a return of the "Naked Olympics!"
The sporting world has evolved into nothing more than a Grand Scheme.
Billions of dollars wasted at the expense of the working class.
Who was it that perpetuated this scam on the world?
The Olympics of our past was about national pride and determination instilled within the young.
It has now become nothing more than a commercial industry thriving under the pretense of national pride.
The Olympic spirit is dead. Too many minor events, too many politically instigated protests, too "busy" to keep up with what is going on. Too many opportunities for terrorism. So much emphasis on "security", the people who pay big bucks to attend as spectators can't even enjoy the experience. Poorly run on the field, biased referees and officials. Hell, last night they even had the North Korean soccer team walk off the field because the officials flew the wrong flag for them.
1. So consumed with Security because of possible terrorist action.
2. Commercialized.
3. Paid professionals.
4. Property owners kicking out renters to make a fast buck.
5. Player doping to enhance performance.
6. Nations go to Olympics to hold hands and compete then go home and kill one another.
That is the Olympic Spirit.................
It is time for the Olympics to go into hiatus for another thousand years or so. There is no Olympic spirit. They are commercial, professional, money makers for the athletes and a gamble for the host cities. The coverage is consistently inconsistent and has little to do with the competitions and everything to do with selling the host country and the commercial viability of the participants. Its about corporate logos and product placement. The last thing the Olympics are concerned with is amateur athletic excellence.
What happened doesn't the americans have any more amatures any more that they have to send pros to the Olympics.. all the olympics is now is a big buck game.. no true amatures from the united states any more.. What has happened to this country...????
Practically all US athletes, since the 1960's, have been pro's. They were paid a college education for playing their particular sport.
The Olympics is solely about the money now. It used to be a celebration of amateur sport. Now it's just another way to sell you stuff. I don't watch it, haven't for 10 years.
Spot on! How can you spend over $17 Billion on a sporting event and it not be about money?
this crap is a big waste of time and tv time, i have never watched this crap and never will got better things to do like watch my grass grow
Or Marie-Reine Le Gougne. People really don't want to watch rigged events by biased so called judges.
I have a question...Does anyone actually care about this silliness?
Yes.
With what I have seen in the past several days, with people refusing to walk in the ceremonies, and stupid gestures from the athletes, No there is no spirit for the US anymore.
Unfortunately it seems impossible to allow commercialism without it going over the top and becoming crass. However, amateur games hurt the U.S. and other Western democracies because countries like Russia and China will disguise professionals through military and government jobs that are just a front for full-time athletes.
It's also a reality that constructung the Olympic facilities and providing security costs a lot of money; without commercial sponsorships the games probably wouldn't take place.
Here's a proposal:
1. Hold the games in Greece every time. That would eliminate the need to construct new facilities every four years.
2. De-politicize the games by having athletes compete individually rather than representing their country. Play the Olympic anthem and raise the Olympic flag at medal ceremonies.
3. Point 2 above probably requires elimination of team sports like soccer and basketball. The maximum would be four person relays. That would be a shame, but soccer has the World Cup and other team sports could do the same.
I know that the parade of nations at the opening and closing ceremonies is an important part of the Olympic experience, but decreasing the emphasis on nationalism might be required for the long term survival of the Games.
Ding, ding, ding, ding! We have a winner!
I stopped watching the Olympics years ago because they became so crass and commercialized. I've always said the O's should be held in one stadium (in Greece; Winter Games - if we ever have winter anymore - would be in Grenoble) so the conditions are always the same; athletes should be amateurs only and corporate sponsorship should be minimal and invisible; Then I might start watching the Games again. 'Til then, fuggetaboutit.
Chris,
You are an idiot. Per your conditions, you would have to be present to watch the games and you probably wouldn't even know they existed.
Sadly ... The Olympics are not what they use to be ...
Basketball, Soccer, Tennis and any other sport that has PRO Athletes who make 10s / 100s of millions of dollars trying to show up for 2 weeks and play like they are Olympians is a joke ... and in Brazil we add Golf ...
There will/CAN NEVER be Another Miracle on Ice and thats sad.
You sir are stupid. What Japan's womens softball team did four years ago was every bit as impressive as the 1980's US hockey run.
No it was not .. clearly you have NO understanding of sports .... you are the stupid one, as your not even informed on the topic
Besides, that has nothing to do with my comment or point
As my point is the inclusion of multi millionaire Pro Athletes in Olympics ruin them and the spirit they were meant to have ...
Nations of the World would never agree to this because.
1. They want to hear their own Countries name when one of their athletes win.
2. Who would sponsor each nations athletes
3. Greece is bankrupted plus The violence, looting and chaos engulfing the country underlines growing rift between the Greek people and their politicians.
4. Bad as it is now no one would even watch.
5. In a perfect World it would work. Humans are far from perfect.
6. An event like this makes tons of money for some and that is the bottom line.
I have a bad feeling about the Olympians and Crowd safety.
I would not go if all expenses were paid,,It costs way to much to put this event on
The Olympics needs to get back to limiting the competition to amateur athletes and cut out the state sponsored teams from countries who 'cheat' to win medals. Athletes should be 'real people' who do not play sports for a living, and that would include cutting out the teams from Russia and China who are raised from birth to be Olympic athletes. This should be about the athletes, not about big money, anyway. I won't watch any of the Olympics, because it has become so commercialized it is not representative of athletes who must train and prepare on their own.
Lot's of Olympic haters! Hmmmm. It must just be hatred of commercialism. The games really haven't changed. Athletes are better trained, usually through athletic departments at Universities. The outcry of an unfair playing field prompted non-communist countries to start sending pro athletes.
I don't understand how anything as globally popular as the Olympics could avoid commercialism. But some people are just gonna hate, no matter what.
Rather then call people haters or idiots since the question here is The Olympic spirit. You could look at the facts and see what turn people off. It's just not commercialism.
1. Doping of the Athletes. Two Greeks have already been kicked out this Olympics. One for illegal drugs another for bigotry.
2. Biased Judging (yes this has gone on forever).
3. Greed by landlords. Kicking folks out to make a fast buck.
4. More worried about terrorists that could and have disrupted Olympics.
5. The benefits for some now outweigh the observers care to watch.
The fun and excitement are long gone from this event. When I was younger I could not wait for these Games to start. So like many others now. It just ain't what it used to be. Maybe you just can't handle the truth.
If I ever see an ad with any of these folks trying to make money from the Olympians, I make it a point to NOT buy said products. Let's all boycott, hit them in the wallet.
I don't hate nothin at all except hatred. Really just bored and indifferent to the much ado about nothing much.