re: #365 palomino

When the modern Olympics started in 1896 there were very few pro athletes in any sport. In the US then it was just boxing and baseball. The rest of the world even less.

The amateur ideal is no longer realistic in a hyper media age. If you exclude pros, fewer people will watch or care. Why should athletics be divorced from the money-making incentive that exists in nearly all our other pursuits?

Quite concur. Its made the games less pure, but most people don’t care about purity.