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Anyone been watching the Olympics?

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Through most of the 20th century the Olympics allowed only amateur athletes to participate and this amateur code was strictly enforced - Jim Thorpe was stripped of track and field medals for having taken expense money for playing baseball in 1912.


Later on, however, successful Olympians from Western countries often accepted endorsement contracts from sponsors. Complex rules, involving the payment of the athlete's earnings into trust funds rather than directly to the athletes themselves, were developed in an attempt to work around this issue, but the intellectual evasion involved was considered embarrassing to the Olympic movement and the key Olympic sports by some[who?]. In the same era, the nations of theCommunist bloc entered teams of Olympians who were all nominally students, soldiers, or working in a profession, but many of whom were in reality paid by the state to train on a full-time basis. (Cuba, North Korea, and to some extent China still do this; although China allows professionalism in popular team sports, it can be assumed that athletes in disciplines such as gymnastics from these countries are trained in state academies and have state-given stipends.)


After the 1972 retirement of IOC PresidentAvery Brundage, the Olympic amateurism rules were steadily relaxed, amounting only to technicalities and lip service, until being completely abandoned in the 1990s (In theUnited States, the Amateur Sports Act of 1978prohibits national governing bodies from having more stringent standards of amateur status than required by international governing bodies of respective sports. The act caused the breakup of the Amateur Athletic Union as a wholesale sports governing body at the Olympic level).


Olympic regulations regarding amateur status of athletes were eventually abandoned in the 1990s with the exception of wrestling, where the rules for participation still require amateur status rather than professional status for the safety of the participants. For the upcoming2016 Summer Olympics professionals will be allowed to compete in boxing.[8]


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it wasnt the US that shattered the wirld record by 4 seconds. Was Hungary's Hosszu

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There is a reason no one is watching the Olympics compared to years past. Very few people want to watch NBA teams play against other country's high school teams and no one cares about Phelps anymore. He is old news. Yes a great swimmer, but there is no excitement anymore which is why people use to watch the olympics. Its like watching the Panthers crush the Cardinals.

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Listening to those two ladies talk about the oiled up guy during the opening ceremony was classic. Made my week, wonder what would have happened if two guy's would have talked about an oiled up girl like that on national TV.

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There is a reason no one is watching the Olympics compared to years past. Very few people want to watch NBA teams play against other country's high school teams and no one cares about Phelps anymore. He is old news. Yes a great swimmer, but there is no excitement anymore which is why people use to watch the olympics. Its like watching the Panthers crush the Cardinals.

i dont think anyone cares about olympic basketball period. but the only time it was popular was when it was the dream team loaded with the best pros of all time. people are tired of phelps? hes hugely popular, his brand has taken a hit over the past few years since he got in trouble a couple times. wait till the track starts up, it will be fun. i like golf, and im enjoying watching that competition, USA not at the top of the leaderboard though

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Nope. I am waiting to watch the paralympics and see Eric Bennett bring home the gold.

Hahaha he was my engineering teacher back when I was in high school!!!!! He's a great guy, and that archery setup he created himself is sick!!!!

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When the Olympics are on its the only time the TV is on 24/7. Even if we aren't watching it. It only comes every 4 years

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i love watching the olympics, i think this stuff is great. i dont mind when the US breaks records by 4 seconds.

For over a half century, Russia and the Soviet Block nations have been sponsoring and training their nations best athletes. They are nothing less than professional athletes. So why can't we send our best athletes to compete with theirs?

Thats how I always looked at it. Its supposed to be our country's best against their country's best. Their occupation should not be a factor.

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