ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, August 8, 1996 TAG: 9608080025
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: What's On Your MInd?
SOURCE: RAY REED
Q: Why do some Olympic sports allow professionals to play? I'm thinking of the basketball "Dream Team" and of tennis. I have always believed that the Olympics was strictly for amateurs.
F.K., Union Hall
A: Pro vs. amateur would be unfair, but amateurism has all but vanished from international competition.
The Olympics as an institution turned pro to survive, sellings its rings symbol to corporate sponsors starting in 1985 after major cities absorbed big losses sponsoring the games.
With that corner turned, individual sports federations stopped having athletes sign forms declaring themselves amateurs for an Olympic month.
No longer were American collegians shooting pucks at National Hockey League goaltenders playing for Canada, for example. Now pros can play on both sides.
In fact, in 1998 the NHL will shut down for two weeks while its players represent their home countries in the Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan.
That's how we get to the point where Andre Agassi brings home tennis gold after he's made millions from the sport.
It's because other countries led the way. Soviet Union athletes, for example, had their daily living needs supplied by the state, and richly so as long as they won medals.
Starting in 1988, the fields leveled in some of the venues. Tennis was among the first sports to freely accept pro players.
In basketball, the 1992 Dream Team tilted the court back toward the United States' favor. With the next generation of hoops players, other countries may elevate their game to the U.S. level.
Do amateurs still compete in the Olympics? Yes, in small-market sports such as rowing.
worn by players are any indication.
Is a high-profile guy such as decathlon champ Dan O'Brien a pro? He collected plenty of cash from Reebok in 1992 when he failed to make the Olympic team.
Remember those "Dan or Dave?" commercials showing O'Brien and rival Dave Johnson? Reebok spent $25 million on that campaign and declared it a success, based on sales.
This year, Dan wore Nikes to gold.
There's no way O'Brien could have trained the 40-50 hours per week needed to win the decathlon while holding down an ordinary job.
The real American story is not so much in O'Brien's athletic comeback as in the value system that paid him so well to do it.
In another era, Jim Thorpe was stripped of two Olympic gold medals because he had played semipro baseball, yielding up his amateur standing.
By that 1912 standard, O'Brien wouldn't have been in the Olympics this year. He would have been ineligible.
The modern Olympics are redefined every four years, but the prevailing criterion is declared by Juan Antonio Samaranch, president of the International Olympic Committee.
The Olympics, Samaranch says, want the best athletes in the world. Athletes, for their part, perform better when paid.
The world, it seems, has said that's OK.
Got a question about something that might affect other people, too? Something you've come across and wondered about? Call us at 981-3118. Or, e-mail Ray@Roanoke.Infi.Net. Maybe we can find the answer.
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