An Olympics question
 

I thought to be in the olympics you had to be an amateur. In fact Jim Thorpe lost his gold medal because one summer he played minor league baseball for a couple of hundred dollars. When did this change and why?

Good question... I also want to know why if you get turned down from the Olympics from your country of choice you can go to another country to get in.

I think the change for certain sports started with hockey in the winter Olympics in the mid-80's. The Russians were sending their star russian league players and saying that because they are "unpaid" they qualify. So the best junior players from Can and US were basically going up against NHL-level players every time, and we got fed up with it... so the rule was changed.

Then later when basketball was included in the summer games they for some reason decided to keep the same rules as for hockey and allow every country to send their best players, not just amateurs. Funny they don't do it for baseball though, I doubt we'll ever see a MLB "dream team" anytime soon at the Olympics.

I guess in the end the world wants to see the world's best compete, and in sports like hockey and basketball you'll never see the worlds best unless you allow the pros to partake.

Most Olympic events don't even have any kind of pro level, for those athletes the Olymics ARE their one and only world series or superbowl, so those sports will always be amateur.

Ok I remember when the us hockey team beat the ussr. They said it was the equivalent of a high school baseball team beating the NY Yankees. After that the change must of happened, I havent followed an olympics since then.

The IOC allows each sport's governing body to define who can or can not compete.

Boxing is about the only sport that does not allow pros.

Baseball in the Olympics doesn't have pro's for a multitude of reasons, #1 being that the Olympics are during the season (near the end of the season), and the injury risk is too high to any team that has any chance whatsoever at the playoffs.

There was a good article about just this thing at cnnsi the other day.

I wonder how recetly retired MLB players would do in the Olympics?

40-year-old white guy against the 20-year-old Cuban? I'll take the Cuban...

And before that - Canada beat the Russians in '72 during the first Summit series.

People still remember the famous goal by Paul Henderson in the final game to win the series.

There are minor leaguers in the Olympics.

But, you're right about the Olympics conflicting with the major league schedule.

Also ...... If you make your money as an NFL wide receiver how should that prevent you from competing in a track event?

Not to mention that MLB players would be subjected IOC drug testing if they played in the Olympics.