I believe that if the pinnacle of your sporting profession is not the Olmypics, then it shouldn't be included. Football and tennis spring to mind.
The whole Olympic concept is based upon a celebration of sport. Provided that there is a regulating body and a set of codified rules then any sport is capable of being included. The only pronisio is that enough countries participate in that sport to make a viable competition.
I hear what you're saying. My concern is that if the Olympics is not the pinnacle for your sport, then you're not going to give it your all i.e. Cavani looked completely uninterested when playing. But then again, Murray looked pretty passionate as he beat Federer, so it obviously does mean something.
I understand what you are saying but then you could apply that to competitions within individual sports too. Do all tennis players put as much effort in for a Grand Prix compared to the Grand Slams...? Do footballer try as hard to win the League Cup, instead preferring the FA Cup...? Personally, I'd say all players of whatever sport will have a preference and their preparations for certain competitions may vary, but ultimately they are competitive sportsman (and women) that have drive, passion and will to win no matter what competition it is. I'd be surprised to hear someone say they wasn't bothered about winning a friendly, never mind not trying at the Olympics!
True - Ennis apparently earned half a million quid a year from sponsorship before the Olympics, so she was in no way short of cash! That's not even counting all the other sponsorship - apparently Jaguar gave her a free car this year in the hope she would drive it to the Olympic Park! In fact, she probably didn't even get any UK funding this year cos IIRC if you earn more than about £60k a year from your own income your funding is cut. Rule 40 is more likely to affect athletes like Joe Jackson or Louis Smith, who were relatively unknown before the Olympics, and who are quickly forgotten in favour of the high profile big medal winners before they can cash in through sponsorship. From what I remember the UK funding system goes: Expected to qualify for Olympics / WC - up to £13k a year Expected to reach final / place top eight in Olympics / WC - up to £20k a year Expected to win a medal in Olympics / WC - up to £27k a year So with the average UK wage being around £24k a year you've got to go some to get an above average wage from funding, considering how much you have to spend on training camps, equipment etc, although obviously you may get Lottery funding on top of / instead of this. Personally I would take away the three overage players rule from the Olympics - players like Suarez and Cavani with 40 odd caps and a Copa America under their belt obviously won't care as much as some youngsters who might be getting their first chance of Olympic football. Then again the Olympics gave Bellamy and Giggs the chance to get further in an international comp than ever before!
Some also get sponsorship from other sources too. In Mansfield (where I live) there is a group of business people that call themselves "The Armchair Committee" (the accountant I use is one of them). They hold fundraising events which they manage to raise thousands of pounds from each year. They use this money to sponsor and support upcoming sporting youth product in the local area. The only condition being that the person supported supports the fundraising events if they make it. This helped out Rebecca Adlington prior to Beijing along with County Council funding which I don't believe see ever mentioned, she only thanked the District Council for her bloody shoes! The County Council paid for her coach in her younger years! On her parade, she sat down with her family rather than acknowledging the thousands in the crowd too
