What I have never understood is if you were sponsored by your country or paid by sponsors, you are still being subsidized. Seems the same to me. Yes, the best in the world should compete.

I have Whoopi’s headache too. There just doesn’t seem to be much difference when you look at how an anthletes are supported. If they are great at their sport, then they should be able to compete.

The best in the world still remains the best in the world whether they have accepted money - thus called “professionals” - or not. As we have heard, there is rarely a professional that hasn’t had years at specialized camps and professional coaching. They rarely come out of the woodwork. To be the best now, you have to have the initial talent, work at it close to full time in most sports, and be coached by the best. This is not amateur hour — and I think we saw that more this time than ever before at the Olympics. The interviews with athletes and coaches filled the empty hours and we are now privy to what it takes to get from the beginnings to the gold of greatness. We are looking for the best of the best — and we accept how they got to be the best. We should stand in awe that anyone has been willing to sacrifice young adulthood and childhood to be holding the gold medal no matter what the road was that was taken!!!

This issue really came to the fore years ago when the Soviet Union was sending its pro athletes to the Olympics to compete against our amateurs.

The days when the volunteer firehouse crew from a New England State would use their off hours to practice with a hand-me-down bobsled in order to become good enough to compete in the Winter Olympic Games are over. The Olympic Games are no longer an event for the amateur athletes around the world to gather and compete every four years. I don’t think we have lost anything by the change. After-all, the original games in Greece were not for the amateurs either.

There is no question that Olympic competitors have taken huge chunks of time out of their lives to train for the Olympics. They have been able to do this because someone else’s money has been paying the bills. I don’t think it makes much difference whether the bills are paid by the government (as in China) or by businesses (as they are today, in fact, via “sponsorships,” for example). The days are long gone, as Bonnie says, of people working out at weekends and then getting selected for Olympic teams. So I agree: let anyone compete who plays by the rules - which means NO performance-enhancing drugs and no underage atheletes.

Of course the should be. The bigger question is should we allow countries who take three year old babies away from their families to train, because the have been identified as “talented” to participate.

When I read the question before I clicked through, I said to myself, “What is a professional athlete, really?” Then I read Whoopi’s answer, so - what she said!

Susan G … I totally agree with you. These young children being groomed for Olympic stardom from the minute they take their first step is disturbing.

i think that you should be over a certain designated age before competing say 12 or 13, but you should never be too old.and everyone, yes everyone who meets this age requirment should be allowed to conpete. i do not think a child is mentally ready for the stress and pressure that is involved there.and since we can not mentally screen everybody, some rules have to put in place that may disappoint one athelete who is mentally mature, but protect one that is not.why should it matter if one is a professional? i am a professional mother, homemaker, and wife, and i am not excluded from anything.

Okay, I’ll be the one who looks at the other side of this. Look at our 56 year old ex-cop female sharpshooter. She didn’t come up in any “farm club.” Sports has gotten so overtaken with money and endorsements and drugs and media hype, I can hardly recognize them as sports. I’m tired of watching players blow up like superheroes on steroids, growth hormones or whatever it is they’re ingesting, and I’m tired of watching college football and feeing like I’m watching the pros. Watching the US basketball team beat Italy by a squillion points doesn’t make me proud. I don’t know where to draw the line, but I don’t like it where it is now.

Michael Phelps has already earned 1-3 million in endorsements since the 04 Olympics. That’s how he can afford to practice every day and still pay his rent, excuse me, his mortgage - he already owns a house. After what he did in these Olympics, his agent said he could go on to rival Tiger in endorsements. He is, simply, the best, and I have no problem with him being richly rewarded. He is far from being an amatuer.

Michael Phelps has already earned 1-3 million in endorsements since the 04 Olympics. That’s how he can afford to practice every day and still pay his rent, excuse me, his mortgage - he already owns a house. After what he did in these Olympics, his agent said he could go on to rival Tiger in endorsements. He is, simply, the best, and I have no problem with him being richly rewarded. He is far from being an amatuer.