Quote:
Originally Posted by BLONG7
I think there used to be an Olympic program of sorts...that's where these types of players could come from...
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Yeah, and many of them were pros anyway. In 1994 Hirsh & Nedved were on team Canada after they were already playing Pro. 1992 Dave Tippet and Sean Burke both played in the Olympics after playing pro (and played pro again after). I'm sure there are many more examples.
The Olympics officially allowed professionals in 86 I think, but in reality they did it cause the Eastern Bloc countries were for years paying their athletes a full wage to train year round anyway.
Why should there be a distinction between an athlete making money because people pay to watch him vs an athlete making money cause a sponser pays them to train. The definition of amateur athletics the original olympics had pretty much doesn't exist anymore.