The Olympics

[David Nevin Friedman]

My opinion on athletics is this: I admire athletic excellence, not 
amateurism.  Nowhere do people play basketball as well as in the NBA, 
nowhere is tennis played on the level that is played at the Grand Slams, 
no where is soccer played better than in Europe's and South America's 
professional leagues.  If the nature of athletic excellence is such that 
one must be a professional to achieve the pinnacle of success in their 
particular sport, so be it.  But then again, I am an unabashed capitalist...

David Friedman
namdeirf at gwis2.circ.gwu.edu

Ignorance breeds complicity.

On Mon, 5 Aug 1996, Joe Varo wrote:

> 
> 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
>