Paris Olympics 2024

[Jim at Gentex]

Sorry but I am a believer that the Olympics should Be Unprofessional and a Focus on only athletics.

 not $$$$

I would rather watch Talent.

Given these guys are great and Professional.

Does Not Make them Olympic Material.

It was meant to show the Sport as in itself.

Jim Thorpe.

Jesse Owens.

Love watching the Kids Now But.

[rant]
What James said is 100% spot-on.

Team USA generally abided by the Olympic rules for athletes maintaining their amateur status, so we were not the problem.

China and the Soviet Union thumbed their noses at those rules by claiming their Olympic athletes were students or members of the military, yet they were defacto 'professionals' since their respective governments basically paid all of their living expenses and allowed them to train year-round for their events.

That prompted the IOC to allow other countries to recruit openly paid pro athletes, so that was the end of pure amateur competition simply for love of the sport. 

The really sad part is that two of the greatest Olympic athletes ever had their careers tarnished because of supposed violations of their amateur status that were so minor compared to what China and the Eastern Bloc countries were doing that it was ridiculous.

Jesse Owens and Jim Thorpe were both singled out and I believe treated harshly for what I believe are trivial offenses compared to what other countries were doing at the time.

Jesse Owens was hired as a temp employee by the Ohio state legislature to help pay his travel expenses for out-of-state competitions, which at that time would have been a financial burden for him.  Both the AAU and the USOC dropped the ban hammer on him hard, prohibiting him from ever competing again in amateur and Olympic events after his dominating performance in the 1936 Berlin Olympics.  We can only speculate on their reasoning for such a harsh penalty, but I believe racism was at or near the top of the list. 
 

Jim Thorpe was also treated with the maximum amount of harshness by being stripped of his gold medals he won at the 1912 Olympics because it was discovered that he earned a few bucks for two summers before the Olympics playing semi-pro baseball. Again, the early 1900's were a difficult time financially for everyone, so you can't blame a guy for doing what he had to do to feed his family, especially when athletes from other countries even back then were basically paid full-time professionals. I think in his case bias against Native Americans may have been a factor, but again we can only speculate. 

Thankfully the IOC just recently restored those medals, but it took 110 years to correct a wrong that never should have been committed. 

Sorry for rambling on, but it bothers me that here we have arguably two of the greatest Olympic athletes of all time who were treated unfairly by a corrupt system that allowed other countries to get away with gross violations of amateur status while trashing the careers of two phenomenal men over relatively trivial issues. 
[/rant]

[Bucky Cornstarch]

The break dancing was stupid. Not a fan.
I like the sports were its obvious who the winner is. The guy who runs the fastest, lifts the most, jumps the highest...the winner is obvious. Anything that requires a judge looses my interest.

Should we eliminate gymnastics in the summer and figure skating in the winter?

I agree, break dancing in the Olympics is stupid. Or brilliant.

[Smit]

Break dancing and the other new stuff like that probably increases interest in some people who might not otherwise be interested so good for them.

I've heard some TV channels (Peacock?) made good money broadcasting the "fringe" events so good for them too.

But I can't get in to it.

[mowens]

Have you seen the video of the Australian lady breakdancing? She didn't score a single.

[Jeff]

Have you seen the video of the Australian lady breakdancing? She didn't score a single.

If you call that break dancing. That was horrible. Hell I could do better than that!

[mowens]

Yeah, it looked like an SNL skit.

[Incogneeto]

Break dancing and the other new stuff like that probably increases interest in some people who might not otherwise be interested so good for them.

I've heard some TV channels (Peacock?) made good money broadcasting the "fringe" events so good for them too.

But I can't get in to it.

It's great that the Olympics evolves , But certain sports Nah.

We already have competitions. What's next Football?

Surfing , skateboarding , Motocross Nope.

These are Zen or spiritual activities to me.

[Smit]

Have you seen the video of the Australian lady breakdancing? She didn't score a single.

Break dancing has officially been removed from the 2028 Olympics now.

to the Olympic committee for that!

[SuperHoneyBadger]

Have you seen the video of the Australian lady breakdancing? She didn't score a single.

Don't you dare besmirch Mummy Raygun! She tried super hard, you misogynist swine. /s

Allegedly she's a prof in 'Straya, did her thesis on "Gender in Australian Breakdancing", guess she is into field research now. I'm more interested in the women that didn't qualify for the team, now THOSE would be some stellar audition videos.

[Incogneeto]

Don't you dare besmirch Mummy Raygun! She tried super hard, you misogynist swine. /s

Allegedly she's a prof in 'Straya, did her thesis on "Gender in Australian Breakdancing", guess she is into field research now. I'm more interested in the women that didn't qualify for the team, now THOSE would be some stellar audition videos.

I'm just gonna say "Better Than Average"

[Newbeeee™]

Don't you dare besmirch Mummy Raygun! She tried super hard, you misogynist swine. /s

Allegedly she's a prof in 'Straya, did her thesis on "Gender in Australian Breakdancing", guess she is into field research now. I'm more interested in the women that didn't qualify for the team, now THOSE would be some stellar audition videos.

I did see a vid of the girl "she beat" to get selected to the Aus team.
Well, the vid I watched was a different league. Far far superior to Mummy no points, but....

[TheeCutterman]

I Apologize on behalf of Australia for the so called Break Dancer we sent over. What a Fkn Embarrassment to us.

Now Bring on the LA 2028 Pole Dancing. Watch who we send over for that. And i will oing to call it now that if she doesn't have any injuries over the next 4 years she will bring home gold.

 Cheers Daz