HOW THE SOVIETS RUINED THE OLYMPICS

Except for hockey, I stopped watching the Olympics years ago. Why? Because the Soviets ruined the Olympic games during the Cold War.

The Olympics were designed so that the best athletes from all over the world could come together every four years to compete in various sports. All of the competitors had to be amateurs. That all changed when the communist government of the Soviet Union set out to establish its superiority in sports over the United States and its allies.

The Soviets took promising young kids away from their families and placed them in special boarding schools and sports camps. All their expenses were paid for by the communist government. The government furnished all the trainers and the latest conditioning and training equipment available at the time. The athletes were also provided with generous spending allowances as they grew older. In effect, by the time they tried out for the Olympics, they were true professional athletes.

When the Soviets started to amass a bunch of gold medals, protests by the U.S. and other countries about Russia's paid athletes fell on deaf ears. Rather than antagonize the Soviets, the Olympics committee changed the rules allowing for professional athletes to compete.

And that’s where we are today – almost all the Olympians are professional athletes. It’s gotten to the point where every four years, in the middle of its season, the National Hockey League suspends play for two weeks so that its multi-millionaire star players can leave to compete in the Olympic Winter Games for the countries of their birth.

For wealthy countries like the U.S., Canada, Russia, Britain, Germany, Japan and China, it’s no longer the best men and women amateurs that are competing. It’s the best professional athletes that money can buy, money that comes from governments and corporate sponsors. That has put the athletes from poorer countries at a distinct disadvantage because their governments and corporate sponsors cannot afford to provide them with the best trainers, equipment, housing, diets and generous spending allowances.

As far as I’m concerned, all that professionalism has ruined the Olympics.