[elpadre]

The original concept of the Olympics was as a competition among the finest amateur athletes in the world, not a competition among nations. In recent years professionals have been included and during the Cold War the communist nations made their national teams part of their foreign policy.

[Bernard]

Despite all the good intentions, the nationalist drive to the Olympics goes back to 1936, with Jesse Owens showing up the Hitler-driven German team.

Or was all that talk a recent addition in the 1960's and forward?

I do agree with you about professional athletes, especially considering all the noise about Jim Thorp (1912? games)

Unfortunately, politics and money always end up ruining amateur sports at most levels.