The Olympics

[Joe Varo]

I realize that this posting has nothing at all to do with Pynchon, but 
with all of the discussion of the Olympics coverage I thought I'd ask 
this question anyway......

Does anyone else out there find the Olympics to be diminished by the 
opening up of them to professional atheletes?  Personally, when I see 
people like Agassi, the Dream Team, etc. winning gold medals, the first 
thing to go through my head is: "ooh, what an accomplishment; you beat 
people who work for a living and just do this for the love of the sport."

I realize that back in the days of the Soviet Union, all of their 
atheletes were essentially professionals while those from the USA were 
purely amateurs and so "our guys (and gals)" lost more often.  A-and it 
seems to me that back then we (the USA) were taking the "high road" as 
opposed to the USSR which was fielding teams of ringers.

Now it seems that much of the Olympics is being dragged down to the level 
of American professional atheletics.  Who knows, maybe in four years 
they'll all go on strike, demanding bigger medals!

Joe