Sporting Spirits in Olympics

$3.7m for athletes' reward
http://straitstimes.com.sg/Breaking%2BNews/Sport/Sport.html
The recently held Beijing Olympics was an international-scale sporting event – or so it ought to be. Putting all those pure competitive instincts aside, we can in fact see that there are a lot of other motives and reasons why people are so steeped in this particular event. It must have been dear to people’s ears to hear of people gambling through sport matches, whether the match is big or small does not really give any big impact. What’s more important is the amount of gain on stake. I believe that this is what a lot of people, adults especially, have when they get involved in this event.

The issue I am addressing here is not much on the spectators, but on the athletes themselves. “Is the term sporting spirits still applicable in nowadays sports competitions?” is the question raised the moment I see this article “$3.7m for athletes' reward” in the Straits Times - August 26, 2008, Tuesday. I know that it’s not at all wrong to prize the winning athletes with a considerable amount of wealth for their efforts. And yes, that’s exactly what countries nowadays are doing: promising prizes to burn the spirits in their athletes so that the country’s name would be lifted. I’m not here to criticize this tradition, but if wealth becomes the sole purpose for the athletes to strive forward, I believe that there would be no point in such event anymore. Is that even any different with any random simple betting games on the streets?

As such, I believe that the athletes must once again think it over – or moreover the athletes to be. Sports world can be alive because of the sporting spirits in it. If wealth overcomes that spirit within, sporting world is more or less dead. This is the current issue and problem, whereas motivator such as wealth and pride replace the spirit. Is there anything to be done about it?