Greeks: "What have you done to our Olympics?"

The Olympics’ image as the pinnacle of amateur athletic competition has tarnished this month as omnipresent blood doping and performance enhancing drug scandals have dominated the news wires.

I think it’s been apparent for some time that the Olympics are not the pure amateur athletic gathering envisioned by the Greeks. There is too much at stake – millions of dollars in endorsements, international fame and national prestige hang in the balance. The Olympics have for some time been manipulated by governments (the Soviet/U.S. boycotts of the 1980s and Hitler’s hopes for the 1936 games come to mind) in their games of international intrigue. Winning the right to host an Olympics has become an international badge of prestige, and the more medals one racks up, the more bragging rights one accrues.

The lure of fame and money have also been too tempting for an increasing number of athletes, who turn to performance-enhancing drugs to gain an edge over their competitors. Sportsmanship and fair play? Forget it, that’s for losers. The real message of the Olympics is that “do anything to win” is the order of the day.

The reality is that there really are very few amateurs in the games; even the athletes who are not “paid” to compete spend the entire time training for competition. Even if they don’t derive a weekly check payable to Joe Athlete for Being Athletic, training and competition is still their job and provides their livelihood.

Call it a Combined World Athletic Championship or call it Athletipalooza, for all I care. Just don’t pretend it’s an amateur event embodying the pure spirit of athletic competition. The Olympics valid claim to that title has long expired, if it was ever accurate to begin with.