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If the olympics were still amateur...

Re: If the olympics were still amateur...

Great question. Here's what I put together.

Forwards:
Joe Colbourne (Denver)
Marc Olver (NMU)
Mario Valery-Trabucco (Union)
Mike McKenzie (St. Lawrence)
Justin Fontaine (Duluth)
Peter LeBlanc (UNH)
Chris Barton (Merrimack)
Tanner House (Maine)
Louis LeBlanc (Harvard)
Matt Read (Bemidji State)
Dion Knelsen (UAF)
David McIntyre (Colgate)
Blair Riley (FSU)
Blake Gallagher (Cornell)
Colin Greening (Cornell)
Riley Nash (Cornell)

Defensemen:
Alex Biega (Harvard)
Brendan Smith (Wisconsin)
Brad Hunt (Bemidji)
Eric Gryba (BU)
Maury Edwards (Lowell)
Martin Nolet (UMass-Amherst)
Brendan Nash (Cornell)
Patrick Wiercioch

Goaltenders:
Alex Beaudray (PC)
Ben Scrivens (Cornell)
Marc Cheverie (Denver)


Colbourne and Fontaine are Canadian among others I believe.
 
Re: If the olympics were still amateur...

A whole bunch of the players listed so far are from Canada..so there might be a slight issue with them playing for Team USA.
 
Re: If the olympics were still amateur...

I thought Hutton was from Thunder Bay?

Yes, Thunder Bay is in Ontario, which is why he listed Carter Hutton as goalie for the mythical Canadian team over Kieran Millian (from Edmonton, Alberta) and Alex Beaudry (from Cumberland, Ontario). ;)
 
Re: If the olympics were still amateur...

A whole bunch of the players listed so far are from Canada..so there might be a slight issue with them playing for Team USA.

Yeah, that was the second listing of college guys from Canada who'd be eligible for Canada.
 
Re: If the olympics were still amateur...

If you are picking college age kids, wouldn't you start with the WJC team members? They just won gold after all.

1 CAMPBELL Jack GK US National U18
2 RAMAGE John D University of Wisconsin
4 DONOVAN Matt D University of Denver
5 WARSOFSKY David D Boston University
8 KRISTO Danny F University of North Dakota
9 McRAE Philip F London Knights
10 JOHNSON Tyler F Spokane Chiefs
11 CARLSON John D Hershey Bears
14 WALKER Luke F Portland Winterhawks
16 ZUCKER Jason F US National U18
17 BOURQUE Ryan F Quebec Remparts
18 LASHOFF Brian D Kingston Frontenacs
19 SCHROEDER Jordan F University of Minnesota
20 KREIDER Chris F Boston College
21 STEPAN Derek F University of Wisconsin
22 JENKS Aj F Plymouth Whalers
23 PALMIERI Kyle F University of Notre Dame
24 FOWLER Cam D Windsor Spitfires
26 MORIN Jeremy F Kitchener Rangers
28 GARDINER Jake D University of Wisconsin
29 D AMIGO Jerry F Rensselaer University
30 LEE Mike GK St. Cloud State

This list is great for WJC, makes no sense for Olympic team. These kids are not even the best on their college teams. Maybe in 4 or 5 years. Remember, Eruzione was graduated, played after and was 25 or 26. It is still a mens tournament
 
Re: If the olympics were still amateur...

Great question. Here's what I put together.

Forwards:
Joe Colbourne (Denver)
Marc Olver (NMU)
Mario Valery-Trabucco (Union)
Mike McKenzie (St. Lawrence)
Justin Fontaine (Duluth)
Peter LeBlanc (UNH)
Chris Barton (Merrimack)
Tanner House (Maine)
Louis LeBlanc (Harvard)
Matt Read (Bemidji State)
Dion Knelsen (UAF)
David McIntyre (Colgate)
Blair Riley (FSU)
Blake Gallagher (Cornell)
Colin Greening (Cornell)
Riley Nash (Cornell)

Defensemen:
Alex Biega (Harvard)
Brendan Smith (Wisconsin)
Brad Hunt (Bemidji)
Eric Gryba (BU)
Maury Edwards (Lowell)
Martin Nolet (UMass-Amherst)
Brendan Nash (Cornell)
Patrick Wiercioch

Goaltenders:
Alex Beaudray (PC)
Ben Scrivens (Cornell)
Marc Cheverie (Denver)

Valery-Trabucco is Canadian. Went to HS in Lake Placid with him...he's originally from Quebec
 
Re: If the olympics were still amateur...

Yes, Thunder Bay is in Ontario, which is why he listed Carter Hutton as goalie for the mythical Canadian team over Kieran Millian (from Edmonton, Alberta) and Alex Beaudry (from Cumberland, Ontario). ;)

my bad... I got lost between all the lists :p
 
Re: If the olympics were still amateur...

Some of the 1980 USA players played pro in the minors or Europe (Eruzione, Harrington, Verchota) before having their amateur status "restored" prior to the Lake Placid. And do we have to be reminded about the "amateur" Soviets, who trained 10 months a year together away from their families, got army salaries for no army duties, and got nice apartments and cars from the Soviet State?

The whole amateur thing was a sham from the beginning perpetrated by the rich euro Olympic Founders who didn't want to compete against tradesmen but against other rich gentlemen. (See the movie 'Chariots of Fire' for more on this). This forced many athletes into poverty. Give me pros anyday and remove the hypocrisy. Money for performance has been part of the Olympics since the very beginning. Even the ancient Greeks Olympians received huge prize packages for winning at the Ancient Olympics from their city-states.

The whole amateur thing is a problem, I agree, but the Olympic amateur part is not a shame. If you start something, you get to make the rules. After all, there is nothing stopping you from starting your own SWAMILYMPICS, and have only pros play. In most ways, I would rather go back to all amateurs, because now all most of the Olympics has become is just another stop on the world tour for most sports, or an All-Star game for team sports.

An example of a sport being ruined in the same sort of way is the America's Cup. Now that it is being fought basically by lawyers and corporations, no one cares anymore.
 
Re: If the olympics were still amateur...

In the quest to become amatuer again, I think the WJC should be replaced by the Olympics serving as the WJC.... this has more appeal to me....if we stop using NHL players, make the Olympics the WJC every 4 years
 
Re: If the olympics were still amateur...

"Full ride" scholarships worth up to $200,000 plus perks, travel, gear, coaching, weight training, facilities, housing, food, insurance, doctors, rehab, tutors, equipment repair...all tax-free.

Professionals get all of the above, plus salaries on top. That's the big difference.


Powers &8^]
 
Re: If the olympics were still amateur...

Some of the 1980 USA players played pro in the minors or Europe (Eruzione, Harrington, Verchota) before having their amateur status "restored" prior to the Lake Placid. And do we have to be reminded about the "amateur" Soviets, who trained 10 months a year together away from their families, got army salaries for no army duties, and got nice apartments and cars from the Soviet State?

The whole amateur thing was a sham from the beginning perpetrated by the rich euro Olympic Founders who didn't want to compete against tradesmen but against other rich gentlemen. (See the movie 'Chariots of Fire' for more on this). This forced many athletes into poverty. Give me pros anyday and remove the hypocrisy. Money for performance has been part of the Olympics since the very beginning. Even the ancient Greeks Olympians received huge prize packages for winning at the Ancient Olympics from their city-states.

Yeah, what Baron Pierre de Coubertin thought about the desireability of "amateurism" is hardly relevant over a century later. To be a world class athlete in anything is a full time job.

Alpine skiing was always chock a block with "shamateurism." On the eve of the '72 winter games, Avery Brundage of the IOC expelled the great Austrian downhiller Karl Schranz, who was making 6 figures as an "amateur." One year Italian Gustavo Toeni won the FIS competition as the best skiier in the world. At a news conference a reporter asked him what it meant and before the kid could answer, another reporter shouted out: "800 million Lira a year."

During the cold war the communist countries always compared our scholarship athletes with their "soldiers." The biggest difference was the lack of central control. The two most dominant big men of their era, Kareem Abdul Jabbar and Bill Walton, did not play for the US in the Olympics. And no force could have required them to play. A similar scenario in a "workers paradise" is inconcievable. In hockey, the Soviets had about a million players in their system. All of whom were moved around at the whim of sports officials. At the top of that pyramid was an NHL-like league with teams like Spartak and Wings of the Soviet Army. The team we saw in the Olympics was an all star team from that league. One year, goalie Vladislav Tretiak entered the Olympics a "sergeant" and ended them a "captain."

Swami's point about the life styles of these athletes is dead on. During the Olympics I posted about an "up close and personal" segment ABC did years ago on the great Soviet gymnast Nelly Kim. She had her own apartment, a duplex, with her coach on the other level and drove an American car. She was living la dolce vita, Soviet style. You can imagine that any little problems she had with the bureauocracy were quickly and efficiently overcome. It was certainly a good deal for her.

Over the years totalitarian governments (Nazi Germany, the Sovet Republics) have labored hard to show the "superiority" of their systems based on the outcome of athletic competitions. The steroid scandals of the East German swim team are perhaps the worst example of this, given that many of those girls have suffered and are suffering as a result. These girls didn't volunteer to take the drugs and there was certainly no "informed consent" involved. Just a government employee ordering them to roll up their sleeves. Not to mention hard working swimmers from other countrys who were cheated out of medals (and only now are beginning to see the record corrected). And let's not forget the Press "sisters," Tamara and Irina, who were gold medal winning athletes, until the IOC established gender testing. The "girls" quickly retired.

No, we're much better off to have abandoned that quaint 19th century notion about "amateurs."
 
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Re: If the olympics were still amateur...

In the quest to become amatuer again, I think the WJC should be replaced by the Olympics serving as the WJC.... this has more appeal to me....if we stop using NHL players, make the Olympics the WJC every 4 years

Soccer does something similar with the Olympics, with all rosters full of U-23s save for 3 overage players so they don't dilute their World Cup. Were the Winter Olympics to use this U-20 model (or U-23?) for hockey, I think the US college coaches would be furious, as players would miss the heart of the schedule and miss a ton of class time, unlike the WJCs held over Christmas break, with class time minimized. Of course, you could also have the kids take the whole season off and train full time and play against NHL, Minor and International teams. Personally, I think the Olympics should have the best players, and those players are (mostly) in the NHL.

The other solution is to have the NHL players in the Summer Olympic Games, but that would rob the program-challnenged Winter Olympics of a prime sport and Hockey wouldn't make much of a splash in the Summer Games.
 
"Quaint notions about amateurs" as they pertained to the games of 30+ years ago is far less applicable in the absence of the Soviet bloc, although that's not to say alternative shenanigans would not rebound.
 
Re: If the olympics were still amateur...

Soccer does something similar with the Olympics, with all rosters full of U-23s save for 3 overage players so they don't dilute their World Cup. Were the Winter Olympics to use this U-20 model (or U-23?) for hockey, I think the US college coaches would be furious, as players would miss the heart of the schedule and miss a ton of class time, unlike the WJCs held over Christmas break, with class time minimized. Of course, you could also have the kids take the whole season off and train full time and play against NHL, Minor and International teams. Personally, I think the Olympics should have the best players, and those players are (mostly) in the NHL.

The other solution is to have the NHL players in the Summer Olympic Games, but that would rob the program-challnenged Winter Olympics of a prime sport and Hockey wouldn't make much of a splash in the Summer Games.

I don't get the bolded part of your post. Before '98, this is exactly what happened - any college players took whatever amount of time required off from college and from their college team. The women to this day go even further. They take the year off from college and from their college team and play together for the year. As for whether or not NHL players should play in the Olympics in the future shouldn't be the question, in my opinion. I think a truly national TEAM should be used, just like they do with the women in the Olympics. Play together for the whole year. I don't care whether it's NHL players, professional players or amateurs. It will probably have to be "amateurs" since the NHL would never go for it, but I think for the integrity of sport and competition, you gotta go with actual teams.
 
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