Saw this on my daily ramble through BBC online. Wondered if anybody had an opinion as to which sport they would like to see dropped...
I always wondered why soccer was an olympic sport - its not as if they don't have enough international tournaments already, same might be said for tennis.
http//news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2513395.stm
any thoughts smile
I'd rather they started with synchronised swimming!
Seriously though, why get rid of them? They are all valid sports surely?
I agree that soccer is covered in the World Cup so no need for it as an Olympic sport. Things like baseball and basketball aren't given international coverage otherwise though so should stay.
World cup soccer is professional soccer, though, Olympic is amateur, isn't it?
I didn't see any reason given for ditching any of them -what are they trying to achieve?
On 2002-11-26 21:46, monster wrote:
World cup soccer is professional soccer, though, Olympic is amateur, isn't it?
I didn't see any reason given for ditching any of them -what are they trying to achieve?
I'm no expert - but I recall reading that Olympic Soccer is professional (like the Basketball & Tennis) - I read something to the effect that Britain wouldn't enter a team because we're GB for the olympics and the 'home nations' for football. the 4 FAs won't combine for the olympics apparently because they worry that FIFA will make them combine always... I think :roll:
aah.
The equestrian stuff is professional too, isn't it? Isn't the Olympics supposed to be the triumph of amateur sports? The march of professionals seems to be making a mockery of this.
If there's one thing the US does waaaaaaaaay ( grin) better than the UK, it's funding and nurturing amateur sportspeople, IMHO ( wink)
Australia does it well too and I think the UK prefer their model.
As I said, soccer is covered by FIFA's World Cup and they are professionals that play.
The American Dream Team basketball squad of the 1992(?) Olympics were NBA players so clearly not amateurs. Still, it was nice to see them totally obliterate the rest of the world and deservedly claim to be world champs. Since then, the rest of the world seems to have caught up.
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<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by pilgrim_007 on 2002-11-27 0134 ]</font>
If baseball is in there then why isn't cricket? With England, WIndies, India, Pakistan, Australia and NZ (and lots of minor nations that turn out for the Cricket World Cup) surely it's more popular than baseball?