Weren't the original Olympic games supposed to be for amateurs?

I believe that television and the expanding popularity of the games to a worldwide audience and the sale of commercial time on these broadcasts make it imperative for the US to look good (and every other country feels the same way about their own athletes, of course) thus the athletes start being treated like star football players in college, and finally all pretense is dropped and the athletes just get paid and now the Olympics, for all the pomp and pageantry, is just another sporting event, albeit on a huge scale.

The Olympics did start of as a amature contest. However so did all codes of modern football. While the Olympics have changed I do not think they have not so much as other professional sports.

There are still restictions on the number of senior players in soccer and Basketball. They are mainly under 23 teams. I am not sure about sports like Baseball but the fact that it will no longer be an Olympic sport after these Games, suggest the the IOC is not happy with professional sports particarly if only played by a few countries.

I agree there is a danger that However i think there is more to the Olympics than professional sport. I have attended 7 Olympics and have found the tickets for the Opening and Closing Cernomies hardest to get. This is why people visit the Olympic Games to see these events of pomp and pageantry, rather than just their sporting events. There were high ideals when the Olympic Movement was founded . To promote peace and international brotherhood. This has been damage with war breaking out during these Games and a bias in who is accepted as a brother. However mang good things have been achieved in Olympic Games.

I never said they shouldn't, Law. Isn't Yao Ming playing basketball for China although he's a member of a US pro team.

I simply said I tended to forget the 'newer' Olymipic competitions such as ping-pong (which the Chinese introduced to the games,) 10 meter air rifle shooting and beach volley ball.

Sorry, CG, but I didn't see that the President was held up--only that his press entourage was.

Mr. Bush went on to open the new US Embassy in Beijing the day before he went to the Opening Ceremonies.

With the coming of beach volleyball to the Olympics, I have decided no sport it too ridiculous to include in competition. So for the 2012 Olympics, which I am guessing will be held in Darfur, I offer the following sporting events for consideration:

1. Olympic pinball
2. Synchronized decathelon
3. Wet t-shirt jumping jacks (women's event)
4. Long range human target shooting
5. Tossing cards into a hat
6. Cigarette smoking
7. Three legged unicycle race
8. So You Think You Can Walk on Your Hands competition.
9. Littering
10.Ostrich wrestling.

And now back to the serious business of discussing the Chinese olympics with this post from....

I like seeing that President Bush is interacting with our athletes over there instead of just making an appearance at the opening ceremonies. He hung out with some volleyball players during practice. He was also in the stands watching Phelps win his first gold in swimming. It was funny, in a way, when they stopped the US national anthem when Phelps got his medal and Bush was making a conductor's gesture to replay the song. He was having fun. The only part that might not be funny is the poor guy in charge of playing the anthem who might have gotten himself in trouble for the mistake.

Just wait. I'm sure some Bush-Bashers will figure out how disgraceful/dishonest/despicable or whatever this is and let us know about it.


Just a technical note, but whereas there could be a number of reasons for this glitch, my guess is the file on the hard drive holding that copy of the anthem had become corrupted.

I knew something as wrong when I heard the anthem begin 4 bars into the tune, then repeated the opening 8 bars of the song twice, instead of just once. At the end the last 4 bars were cut off. Only a computer can manage that sort of thing.

But back to the story, it was fortunate that Phelps, the President, and everyone else just laughed it off. The alternative would have been to start screaming "God is great!" and beheading everyone in sight.

I disagree that Bush is lacks a sense of humor and fun. This is the one thing that sits comfortably with me about him.

Yes, that little gaff was handled quite amicably. Very sportsman like.

And President Bush sure is spending time with the athletes. America's athletes. That they happen to be the womens volleyball team, well, they are athletes.

Speaking of missed opportunities to over react.

We have yet to launch any Cruise Missiles in retaliation to the murder of Todd Bachman in Beijing a few days ago.