Quote:
Originally Posted by underscore
That's how they announce people at the Olympics. Then later they play the national anthem of the winner. Countries pay a bunch of money for people to train and travel just to represent them at the Olympics. Remove the rah rah national pride crap from the Olympics and nobody would care about most of these sports, as is evident by how most of them have little to no coverage the rest of the time.
If you want to say they're purely personal achievements then pull all the national funding from every Olympians training program and see how things go for them.
Aren't the people at the Olympics amateurs? This is specifically not supposed to be professional sports.
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Yes, all of this is correct and really just reinforces my point that we've been sold this idea of "Country and Glory" or what have you. There's an invisible social contract that the athletes are signing on to. They know it, we know it. They have to represent the country and put on a dog an pony show for the rest of us. In return, they get the support whether that be through sponsorships, payment, purpose-built facilities, coaches, etc etc. The point being made earlier was would someone feel a sense of pride if they switched allegiances from country (a) to country (b) and look back on it years later and feel prideful. Think there's a whole spectrum to that, ranging from those that a) don't give 2 rats-asses about the country and patriotism aspect ( despite of course, putting on the show during the process ). and b) Full on retard patriot mode, accomplishing their life's mission by bringing the medal home. How they actually feel, we'll never know. Better to recognize it's a elaborate show, and daresay I say a proxy for a giant dick-wagging contest for countries on the world stage. The athletes are just the dressed up pawns in this whole thing. If they find a way to benefit and make a living from it, good on them.
As an aside, the line between professional athletes and amateur athletes are incredibly grey anyways. What's in a term. If your career is dependent on you doing this one thing, and the one thing is doing a sport. Does that make you a professional regardless of how the money is being provided? Either through sponsorships, training programs and facilities or a traditional paycheque as per the definition of a "professional". Doing really cool backflips in the air doesn't magically produce food on the table.