The Olympics as metaphor for the larger society

[Stinky The Clown]

Jim Thorpe was perhaps the greatest pure athlete ever.

He won Olympic gold in 1912.

He was later found to have been paid for playing semi pro football before becoming an Olympian. He was stripped of his medals for violating the rules for amateurism. He died with the sting of that. 30 years after his death, the Olympic committee gave back the medals.

And today LeBron James is but one of the millionaire celebrity professionals playing basketball.

Names like Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, Maria Sharapova, and Serena Williams are tennis competitors.

Not an amateur among them.

Beach volleyball in bikinis is a sport.

Can anyone say who is competing in shot put or javelin?




$ $ $ $ $ $ $ $

Like everything else that was once traditional and held up as a model to be emulated.




Meh

[bhikkhu]

1. The ideal of the "sporting amateur" originated in the idle British upper classes

The working classes didn't have the time to compete for nothing, even if they could have afforded it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amateur_sports

I don't think its a step down at all, considering the costs of training and the time commitment involved. Whether one's training is subsidized by the state, by one's wealthy family or a patron, or by sponsorships - that has little to do with the athlete or the performance itself. The only way that comes into play is if there is no money, in which case the athlete is SOL.

[Odin2005]

11. Exactly. the cult of "amateur athletics" is classist.

100 years ago professional sports was a working class profession and was seen as such by the upper class.

[Dawson Leery]

2. The olympics are legalized theft of taxpayer dollar.

The host city/country racks up billions of dollars for this charade of monkeys who are merely the front for a handful of large corporations who profit off of advertising and sales.

Ten percent of Greece's national debt is do to the 2004 games.

[bhikkhu]

5. I think competition is fundamental to human nature

its not all and everything, of course, as we are complex animals, but competition seems to be an itch that must be scratched, one way or another.

One might exercise one's competitive instincts directly oneself, or vicariously as a spectator; and it might be on the playing field, or the battlefield, or in the boardroom. I think the playing field offers a most healthy way, with the least harm.

There's nothing better than to watch a spent but gracious victor congratulate his/her opponents for a good match, and thank all those who helped him/her along the way.

[Dawson Leery]

6. The worship of sports players does

seem to fulfill the needs of those lacking in intellectual capacity.

[bhikkhu]

7. Admiration is sufficient

for one who puts his whole heart into an effort and does well.

[Dawson Leery]

8. You can admire them if you wish to.

I don't.

[bhikkhu]

12. The world is a mirror

You can see most clearly in others what you possess in yourself.

[ananda]

3. The word "amateur" is meaningless in today's Olympics, but..

.. it didn't used to be.

I remember learning that Joan Spillane's family was too poor to send
her to the Olympics. So they passed the hat and people donated in
order to send her. That's how it was then.

Now it's so different. Winning is everything, and the sports arena, along
with the political and economic areana around it, is
riddled with corruption on so many levels.

But we the audience still buy into the romance and glory of it. Well, I do
anyway to some degree; but that doesn't mean I like all of it or that I
think it's right.

[fishwax]

4. I'm glad Thorpe wouldn't be stripped of his medals today

It was a joke that they were stripped then (as at least one of his competitors well realized, refusing to exchange his silver medal for Thorpe's gold). The amateur standard was very much a class thing, influenced by the values of the British aristocracy and largely restricting competition to the leisure class. Though I don't personally get that excited about Olympic basketball or tennis, I don't mourn the passing of the amateur standard. I also don't mind that beach volleyball is an olympic sport.

As for shot putters, Reese Hoffa has a great back story, and it was really cool watching him take home the bronze last night, in his third and final Olympic games.

[malaise]

9. Actually the worst metaphor is that you see a packaged version

when it suits NBC and its sponsors

[Odin2005]

10. I bet they stripped Thorpe's medals on a technicality because he wasn't a rich white guy.

Back in those days "Amateur" meant "white guy rich enough to pay for an expensive athletic hobby". To be a professional athlete was to be a working-stiff prole in the eyes of society back then, which was in fact true because pro athletes back then were poorly paid.

[NMDemDist2]

13. i was pretty disgusted last night at our one of our women gymnasts

she thought all night she had the gold locked. then she blew it and got silver.

then she didn't even have the sportsmanship to buck up and congratulate the winner.

bad form IMHO

[Johonny]

14. I guess we can still enjoy the purity of amateur Penn State football then

oops, seriously how many times must someone beg me to pretend that amateur sports were, are pure compared to pro-sports. They weren't/ aren't. If you want purity become an alter boy... errr.