Breakdancing Now an Olympic Sport

[ocnjgirl]

Originally Posted by Bitey

The NHL did it for a while, but then they stopped doing it starting I think with the 2014 Olympics because NHL fans got annoyed when the season was interrupted.

I always thought it was stupid to have professionals in there anyway. It seemed almost bullyish, having millionaire pro basketball players play against small countries that can't possibly compete, and be blown out on national TV. It's embarrassing and IMO against the spirit of the games. It ruined it actually, takes away the possibility for magical moments like the U.S. beating Russia in ice hockey.

[jmgg]

Originally Posted by ocnjgirl

I always thought it was stupid to have professionals in there anyway. It seemed almost bullyish, having millionaire pro basketball players play against small countries that can't possibly compete, and be blown out on national TV. It's embarrassing and IMO against the spirit of the games. It ruined it actually, takes away the possibility for magical moments like the U.S. beating Russia in ice hockey.

In a perfect world you're right, but then we go back to the days of mass cheating like what was done by all the Soviet block and communist countries. All their "amateurs" were in the army and their ONLY job in the army was to train to be Olympiads.

It's actually more fair now.

What I can't understand is, who are these absolute total idiots that sit on the board of the Olympics? The money greasing palms have to be extraordinary for them to make the decisions that they make.

[Bitey]

Originally Posted by ocnjgirl

I always thought it was stupid to have professionals in there anyway. It seemed almost bullyish, having millionaire pro basketball players play against small countries that can't possibly compete, and be blown out on national TV. It's embarrassing and IMO against the spirit of the games. It ruined it actually, takes away the possibility for magical moments like the U.S. beating Russia in ice hockey.

That made sense when the Olympics was ostensibly for the benefit of amateur athletes, but with many countries covertly (or not so covertly) paying their Olympic athletes enough to make training their full-time job, it became too difficult to maintain the distinction between pros and amateurs. So now the Olympics are open to everyone, pros and amateurs alike. If anything, allowing pro hockey players to play gave smaller countries a fighting chance against the dominance of Canada and the Soviet Union/Russia. Before pros were openly allowed, Canada and the Soviet Union combined won gold 12 out of 15 times. Canada and Russia still dominate but not as much as before. Now other teams are winning gold and teams like USA, Sweden, Finland, Czech Republic, etc., are a lot more competitive than they were pre-1988.

Same goes for basketball. The USA already dominated before pros were allowed to play. But as basketball becomes a more international sport and the NBA nurtures talent outside the USA, other nations are giving us a run for our money and it's no longer a slam dunk (pardon the pun) for the USA to win gold. In fact they had to settle for bronze in 2004.