Whats up with NHL professionals now playing for their "national" (hockey)teams ?!??!?!?!

Team Canada; Martin Brodeur, Ed Belfour, Rob Blake, Theo Fleury, Paul Kariya, Mario Lemieux, Al MacInnis , Joe Nieuwendyk, Brendan Shanahan, and Steve Yzerman.

Team Czech Republic;
Dominik Hasek , Jaromir Jagr, Michal Sykora, and Petr Sykora.

Team Finland;
Teemu Selanne.

Team Russia;
Pavel Bure, Sergei Fedorov, Darius Kasparaitis, Alexei Kovalev, Igor Larionov, Alexei Zhamnov, and Alexei Yashin.

Team Sweden;
Johan Hedberg, Tomas Holmstrom, Nicklas Lidstrom, Markus Naslund, and Mats Sundin.

After the Games are over they'll return to their American NHL teams & American towns and continue pulling in the millions that can only be afforded them because they call the United States of America home !!!!!

Any sports fans have anything to say about this now ?!?!?!??!

Who won?

And who pays to see these guys play?

1980.  The Russian team was filled with Professional hockey players who played in their Elite league.  The USA team had college players.  

Today the best Russian players play in the NHL.  Why not have the best play?  

I agree with Beer_Slayer.
THe Olympics are SUPPOSED to be the best AMATURE athleats, not the best PROFESSIONALS.
Having all the pros ruins the sport.
That's why we HAVE professional leagues.

[smoke]

I totally sympathize with the "pure" ideal of amateur competition, but this isn't anything very new.  As has been pointed out, the Soviet bloc countries have competed with professionals since the 1950s.  Canada boycotted several Olympic games in protest.  Later, Bobby Clarke saved the free world by tomahawking the great Alexei Kharmalov, thereby breaking Kharmalov's leg and removing him from competition with the Canadian all stars.  Who says diabetics can't be mean?

The problem with amateurs, is what is an amateur.  If you are going to be the best in a given sport it takes 1) genes 2) will to overcome injuries and distractions 3) EXTERNAL SUPPORT.  

From a hockey perspective,  the 16-20 y.o. bracket may be the last age that talent is amateur.  After that you're pro, minor league or "working in a restaurant."  

I think the interesting thing about the games is the underdogs such as Belarus or Eddie the Eagle or the Jamaican bobsled team who actually are relatively amateur, but that isn't what the Olympics are about.  

Frankly, I'd much rather participate in than watch sports anyway.  

Says who?  Back in the original Olympics and in 1896 when the modern Olympics restarted, were there professional leagues of anything?  Maybe 1 or two.  They used the best athletes they could find.  Nothing wrong with that today.

ORF -

I agree 1000%

"Team Canada" mens hockey all live and work in America.

So do the majority of Russian figure skaters.

The BIGGEST reason these athletes got to be as good as they are is due to the American economy, infrastructure, and opportunities they would NOT have had if they had stayed in their own countries.

So they profit off the greatness of America, then they go win an Olympic gold medal for their "home country." [rolleyes]

YET ANOTHER reason the Olympics are a joke.

Suppose you feed, clothe, and nurture your children until they are 15 yrs old, and the next Father's Day, they give ME a Fathers Day card and not you. Would you be a bit miffed????







Is that why all the Russian figure skaters live AND TRAIN in the USA???? America affords FAR greater opportunity to develop your natural ability to world-class status. Then you take that gift America gave you, and go win gold for another nation.





Yup.

American economy, freedom, infrastructure, and opportunity  are the ONLY reason they are playing hockey in the NHL.

And they say thank you by playing for ANOTHER country in the Olympics. While they may have had natural ability, and put in their own hard work along the way, its because of AMERICA they play world-class hockey.

Garandman...do not get me wrong. I generally like the States and forsee a not so distant future in which Canada and the USA meld into one ( probably due to Canada being absorbed). Which I have few problems with.


That said its posts like yours that make me want to get out of my car next time I cross the border and take a big long PISS on the ground as soon as I get over the border.........................


Mind you the Border Guards would probably shoot me.

So... Having these athletes spending money and paying taxes in the United States is a bad thing?  [>:/]

Importing the best of what the rest of the world offers is part of what makes America great.  

So what? I wouldn't waste my time going to Canada, even if it was to take a piss. You've got nothing to offer me besides curling, which is what I think Garandman was trying to say.

So hearing the truth gives you the Pavlovian urination response????

[}:D]

Everything I said is true. And its these truths that make America the MOST hated nation on the face of the earth.

We give Canadian hockey players the opportunity to become multi-millioaires, and your urine is the thanks we get??

Whatever.

True enuf - I don't understand it.

My ancestry is English / Irish / German / Russian. (Translated: A warlike-drunk who drinks his vodka from a demitasse with his pinky extended) But I assure you, I feel no allegiance to any of those nations.

Where my mother was located at the moment of my birth is fairly irrelevant to me. What IS relevant is the nation that has given me the freedom and opportunity to be who and what I am today. It is to THAT nation that I owe all my allegiance.

Seems to me since one particular nation made them the hockey players they are today (not to mention multi-millioaires) , they owe THAT country a bit more than where the GPS says they were located when they exited the birth canal. And they should not take that ability, and win glory for another nation.

But like we determined above, I don't understand what the Olympics is all about.

Nope.  You've missed it entirely.

Hard work +  much more hard work + (probably) good genes + a whole lotta luck = professional athlete. (period) Where you live or train has absolutely nothing to do with it.  The only reason an athlete would move to the U.S. is someone is crazy enough to pay them millions.

As an aside:  The country you play for has nothing to do with the country you were born in.  The IOC says you must choose a country that you have citizenship with and you may only choose once.

All that being said, I agree the olympics are a joke, as corrupt as any south american government!

Your location has [b]something[/b] to do with it if the training opportunities aren't available.  Suppose, for instance, that you live in Somalia and want to be a hockey player.  You can have great genes and work harder than anyone else in the world, but without a rink to skate on, or a coach, or any teams to play in you aren't going to get very far if you stay in Somalia.

My only point to be made about this is: I hope that the NHL opens up the ice.  

I don't think east Africans, including Somalis would make top tier hockey players because they are generally skinny.  I speak from "heap cracked sternum experience", when you take a run at a guy who is 40 pounds heavier than you, nothing good comes of it for you.  Unless you have a murky personal history, you have the heart of a lion and your name is Theo Fleury. But he doesn't look very African.  

If I were to take hockey players from Africa, I'd cull them from Central or west Africa.  

I agree wholeheartedly about total dedication and luck being critical ingredients to peak athleticism.  Algorithmically:

If Carl Lewis = on rag,
  Then Carl Lewis don't win even though he   should.


We can all agree that for the time being, the Canadians are still producing the best hockey.  Not the most exciting, but the dominant hockey.  Other teams are close and have phenomenal talent, but not that close.  

As any Frenchy would say:  Je m'en branle.

Hell, what with the words about pissing across the border, it looks like we need to have some cultural exchange trips.  

Wow, pro wrestling in the olympics.  I think that would work as a demonstration sport at lest.  Bears further study.  But I won't be satisfied until Bigfoot (USA) and LeFacheur (CAN) square off and pound some cars in the Olympics.