The problem is the Olympics stopped being the Olympics when it became a professional tournament instead of an amateur competition. There's no longer any excitement in it, no longer the sense of people with an ordinary background doing their best to become champions. When you're a pro, the achievement just not quite there. They'll never get back to where they were but when you play to empty stadiums and ever dwindling TV viewers, you've got a problem. The IOC may just be too hide-bound a bureaucracy to deal with the crisis in world sports.
I agree completely. The loss of amature status, was key.
When I was seventeen, I joined my mom's bowling league to fill a slot. We hadn't done much together in life, and I joined.
Toward the end of the season, I was in line to win some hokey trophy. I was bowling against a bunch of older ladies and I didn't want the thing. Then my mom was contacted by league staff.
As it turns out, I could not accept that trophy or it would eliminate my amature athletics status. I would never be able to compete on the amature level again.
My how things have changed.
There was a real purity in a guy going out and holding off to become a pro, to compete one more time at the amature level in the olympics. That charm has turned into a steaming pile of pasture pies, IMO.
I think the Olympics used to be a lot more fun to watch in the 1970s. I remember the 76 and 80 Olympics as a child, and they seemed more full of suspense and energy and excitement.