Not Jesse Owens

Olympic athletes of days gone by crushed the Nazi-propagated myth of Aryan supremacy, and in a later era, Olympic competitors from the West showed the way of life of the then extant Soviet Bloc was far from supreme. One must wonder today with highly paid professionals sapping any real spirit of amateurism from many of these Games sports, if the Olympic movement has devolved into spectacle without substance and money making idea without ideal. In any event, memories of heroes of yesteryear are supplanted by advertising campaigns right to the Wheaties boxes of the gold medalists of more recent Games.