Did you see the "Top Gear Winter Olypmics"

I say let them take over...

Return to the orignal format and have the contestants perform naked. Beach Volley ball and women's snooker would be a hoot!

...do I have to apologise now or can I wait for a reprimand first.

*ahem*

Wrong season, I think? Although title is imprecise, yon thread starterer is talking Winter Olimpingics?

Me too!

Of course the beach would a tad chilly. Side effects could be even cooler though.

Snooker tables made of ice and they could have frozen balls....on the table...to play with...you know what I mean.

Replace all female athletes with Kimmie Meissner

Take ALL events back to the amatures, NO pro's allowed, if you get payed to play, you don't go to the olympics. Then it would be better.

@FD: Your theory is one I would agree with...in theory. The Irish national gamas, the GAA perhaps better known abroad as Gaelic Football and Hurling are played by amatures. However in order to run the GAA, as with any full time and well organised society/group, you do need a dedicated body of people and they need to be professional. Also considering the time and effort invested by the players they too expect some sort of monetary "assistance". Even ignorning the money you have the various factions and the usual power struggles between them. The upshot is that the irritating spectacle of grown men throwing themselves to the floor and/or arguing with officials is rife in amature sports too. It is virtually impossible to have a 100% amature sport and the ethos of modern lies and loopholes in rules pervades on the pitch just as much as it does off it.

I currently have a very bleak view of many sports, professional or otherwise. Cynical falling to the ground hoping to fool a referee or fouling other players when out of the ref's sight ar the norm, taking drugs to enhance results too.

Golf and snooker are two of the few sports which I can think of where the gentlemanly and sporting conduct of calling a foul on yourself is the obeyed etiquette.

I'm speaking of the competiters, not those running it. I find it stupid, for an amature team in basketball, to go up against a pro team. It should be limited to high school, and college age people. If they at anytime except money to skate, play whatever they do, they they lose the right to go to the olympics. If they get caught doping, they are permantly baned. It should be about skill, and heart in the games, not helps and cheats. It would be like playing you in Freelancer on line, but I have an invulnerable anubis, while you fly a run down starflyer. Let it be equals in the area then see who uses good judgement, and puts their heart in the sport.

Adults in kids area of sports has poisoned it these days, where parent fight over their kids playing and take it Too serious, instead of letting the kids enjoy playing.

Edited by - Finalday on 3/8/2006 4:47:14 PM

the modern Olympic movement's original ethos was entirely amateur and it stayed like that until the 1950s, and any competitor who was found to have at any time in theor career recieved payment or prize money for their sporting endeavours was blacklisted (remember the case of the *Phantom Runner?*) although it wasn't until the late 70s and early 80s that the professionals (ie paid athletes) dominated it to the extent we see today. Even then, officially athletes were classed still as amateurs while they were competing.

If you can recall the US basketball *dream team* of the early 90s, those players temporarily were allowed to quit their high-paid professional jobs so that they could win the gold for the USA. It led to howls of protest at the time that was, in effect, a form of cheating - these players had experience and training facilities that no other country's competitors could match, and that it made a mockery of the Olympic amateur ideal. However, as by this time the Olympics were big business, the tv rights alone were worth millions and the broadcasting companies weren't going to pay to televise unknown amateurs, the IOC let the matter pass, and in effect laid the principle of amteur participation to rest.

I too would like to see a return to strict amateur competition, as it would *level the field* and allow other nations a chance to get the golds and not just the developed world every time.

What, exactly, are the Olympics for then? Is it to be faster, farther, stronger or something else? The whole idea of being competitive kind of makes the thing self contradicting ... as far as athletes themselves go.

If these people are supposed to devote their time to be world class level competitive, that really rules out having a normal job or career to support themselves. They need financial help just to put food on the table, never mind the costs of training facility and equipment. And how do the coaches put food on the table? Who pays for the coaches?

I'm going to stay away from the "amateur" versus "professional" argument because before the 70s and 80s there were professionals in the Olympics, they just weren't called that because they weren't from capitalist countries.

@killa: you just watched the RvB Winderlames PSA didn't you?

I never got the appeal of the olympics. you dont really win money, do you?

Yah, Killa. By six of your own ideas, do you mean most of Sarge's ideas and some of your own?

it's not the winning, it's playing the game; there is more to competitiveness than just being first. I realise that in our modern society where success and celebrity and everything associated with those things is everyone's aspiration (except mine it seems!) it's a difficult concept to grasp, especially over the water where there's a sharp dischotomy between *winners* and *losers.*

Over here we still show as much, if not more, respect for a good loser than a bad winner.

You will also recall that J.C *Jesse* Owens wasn't a professional? yet he achieved everlasting fame and glory by beating the most highly trained Ubermensch products of Der Fuhrer (in front of Der Fuhrer and his people) Owens is legendary but he received no financial reward for what he did, did he? In fact, despite his achievements and the ticker-tape parade in his honour when he returned home, he wasn't allowed to ride in a lift with *white folks* to his own reception and here's what he had to say about his heroic welcome by a grateful American nation..

---

*When I came back to my native country, after all the stories about Hitler, I couldn't ride in the front of the bus. I had to go to the back door. I couldn't live where I wanted. I wasn't invited to shake hands with Hitler, but I wasn't invited to the White House to shake hands with the President, either.*

---

(in contrast at least Hitler gave him a smile and a wave)

Owens' record wasn't beaten until 1986 by Carl Lewis. All that from a poor black guy who never made any money out of his achievements, and got b*gger all thanks as well. If anyone is an exemplar of the Olympic ideal, it's him; not professionals who see it as a good career move that looks good on their resumé and gets them an extra few thousand a week.

@All: At the risk of sounding repetetive the GAA in Ireland does have amature players. By and large they are Garda(Police), Teachers and Civil Servants (of course not exclusively) who can use their flexible working hours and guarenteed income in order to dedicate time to the sport. To think that such "amatures" would not resort to some sort of cheating in order to gain an upper hand is to ignore human nature, or at least as Taw points out, the human nature which is seen today on any play field of any sport. These amature sports people fling themselves to the ground in the hope of gaining penalties and commit fouls behind the referees back. They are driven by a desire to win which can have just as much a negative effect on their character as money.

It is perhaps as much a sign of the reduced self respect and the loss of personal honour in general society as it is a reflection of our sports people.

While I am at it, FD, log onto any Freelancer MP site and read the rules and regs. "No cheating" will be common to all and a nice list of banned players will be found. Typical cheats are jumping characters to escape a battle, spawning and re-entering a battle, creating characters only to loot the default weps of your own "fake" character. These are amature players who not only gain no monetary advantage but are not even gaining any real acknowledgement.