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Thread: Olympic Pros?

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    Default Olympic Pros?

    Should pro athletes be allowed to compete in the Olympics?
    By "pro" I mean someone who is on a pro team and employed as a player.
    I can argue both yes and no but really lean to NO.

    How do you feel about this issue?
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    I think it's okay to have professional athletes compete. My reasoning for that is that during the days of the Soviet bloc (the old USSR and its satellites) so many athletes were in the military. In effect they were in training the whole time. Other nations which didn't do that fielded athletes who gave up their jobs to train for years. That improved when governments started to offer their athletes some help in joining national sports programmes. I think the distinction blurred then and I don't think it's relevant today.
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    I really don't care as long as they are good enough to take the golds home. If pro players give us the advantage, then so be it. They are athletes who are employed full time to play the sport itself. There might be some players out there who just don't want to be in the professional sports teams, but are just as good. Maybe do trials and tests for anyone wanting to be on the olympic teams? That would give anyone wanting to test their skills, a fair shot at it without being on a pro team.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Mr. P View Post
    Should pro athletes be allowed to compete in the Olympics?
    By "pro" I mean someone who is on a pro team and employed as a player.
    I can argue both yes and no but really lean to NO.

    How do you feel about this issue?
    I would say no. I think that professional athletes have ruined the Olympics.
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    No. Certain countries have many, many advantages available to their professional athletes, certain countries have methods that rub right up against the illegal line in order to get their athletes in supreme shape. It just offers too many variables for people to get a medal for something that they get paid a ton of money to do, anyway. Save it for someone who will really appreciate it, i.e. the kid who works his/her ass off but never went pro for whatever reason. They're the ones who deserve it.
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    I would say no as long as all countries follow suit. If other countries are going to use professionals ie: USSR, then all countries should be able to use them.

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    I think they should be allowed. The Olympics always advertises itself as the way to determine who is the best in the world, but how can you say that when you deliberately exclude the people who probably are the best in the world? In effect, I think excluding pro athletes is punishing them for being good at a sport people are willing to pay to see. If swimming was as big a spectator sport as basketball, do you really think Michael Phelps wouldn't be rolling around in huge piles of cash?

    I also don't buy the argument about 'not appreciating it.' Even if you're a pro, you almost never compete internationally except maybe one bordering country (like us competing with Canadian teams in baseball and hockey). The chance to compete for the gold medal in the Olympics is so much bigger.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Hobbit View Post
    I think they should be allowed. The Olympics always advertises itself as the way to determine who is the best in the world, but how can you say that when you deliberately exclude the people who probably are the best in the world? In effect, I think excluding pro athletes is punishing them for being good at a sport people are willing to pay to see. If swimming was as big a spectator sport as basketball, do you really think Michael Phelps wouldn't be rolling around in huge piles of cash?

    I also don't buy the argument about 'not appreciating it.' Even if you're a pro, you almost never compete internationally except maybe one bordering country (like us competing with Canadian teams in baseball and hockey). The chance to compete for the gold medal in the Olympics is so much bigger.
    Good points, H. You've convinced me.
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    what about all the swimmers that get full ride scholarships at american universities not to mention millions in endorsement cash.....

    amateurs.......hardly.....

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    I think Michael Phelps probably has a pretty nice pile of cash to roll around on.

    Pro athletes in the US, China, etc. train year-round, take all kinds of performance enhancers, have entire teams of specialists making sure that they are working to their full potential, I just don't think it's fair at all for athletes like that, who by the way already recieve mountains of accolades and cash, to be able to compete with people from small countries who don't have the financial stability to support their professional athletes like that.
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    Quote Originally Posted by dan View Post
    I think Michael Phelps probably has a pretty nice pile of cash to roll around on.

    Pro athletes in the US, China, etc. train year-round, take all kinds of performance enhancers, have entire teams of specialists making sure that they are working to their full potential, I just don't think it's fair at all for athletes like that, who by the way already recieve mountains of accolades and cash, to be able to compete with people from small countries who don't have the financial stability to support their professional athletes like that.
    maybe you missed the part where most of the poor smaller countries athletes (swimming and track) go to american universities on full ride scholarships .....

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    Quote Originally Posted by manu1959 View Post
    maybe you missed the part where most of the poor smaller countries athletes (swimming and track) go to american universities on full ride scholarships .....
    I would prefer to see a percentage on the number of Olympic athletes who actually get full scholarships to US universities before I comment fully, but there is a world of difference between a college-level athlete and a professional athlete.
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    How about they take all the pro-sport stuff out of the competition. No baseball, soccer, hockey or basketball. That's where the pro's come into play anyway. You can watch those kind of games for months on end, why do they need to be in the olympics? Go back to the original games, track and field, gymnastics and swimming.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Gaffer View Post
    How about they take all the pro-sport stuff out of the competition. No baseball, soccer, hockey or basketball. That's where the pro's come into play anyway. You can watch those kind of games for months on end, why do they need to be in the olympics? Go back to the original games, track and field, gymnastics and swimming.
    there is a professional track and field league in europe....

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    Quote Originally Posted by Gaffer View Post
    How about they take all the pro-sport stuff out of the competition. No baseball, soccer, hockey or basketball. That's where the pro's come into play anyway. You can watch those kind of games for months on end, why do they need to be in the olympics? Go back to the original games, track and field, gymnastics and swimming.
    there is a professional track and field league in europe....and gymnastcis and swiming...according to google anyway....

    "I would rather live my life as if there is a God and die to find out there isn't, than live my life as if there isn't and die to find out there is."

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