Thus Endeth Another Winter Olympics

[Assur]

Let's look at some fairly recent history.  The neo-Olympics are profoundly elitist in conception.  The initial premise was that the competitors were amateurs competing for their nation, their empire, their country.  The quaint habit of some rich persons was to seek out and sponsor poor athletes to hone into Olympians, with credit of course accruing to the patron.  Patron of the athletic arts, as it were.  The significant change to professionals competing at the Olympics has happened during my lifetime, and is IIRC post 1980. 

Occhi
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Sorry, but looking back at the history of the original Olympics, when they were a competition between Greek cities/states, they were a charged up rivalry, with winners getting honour/privileges for their lifetime plus benefits for their descendants. As regards Pancration, the original unlimited combat, it makes todays WWF/total combat look like wimp sports.

The neo-olympics always had a competetive/nationalistic side, only they had a veneer of being purely amateur. IIRC blacks were only allowed to compete after the first world war. Anyway when communist amateurs competed the idea of gifted amateurs doing it just for the glory was dead anyway (if there was ever any truth to it)

Personally the Olympics passed me by, but all the events, except perhaps Curling, need a degree of physical fitness and competition I couldn't handle, so I don't knock them!