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Oh yes , I agree being part of the ceremony does not not mean that you must pray ............ Anyone who thinks othwerwise is very wrong

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Expanding on this theme, the ages that kids get involved in sports has gotten ridiculously out of hand. Gymnasts are barely out of diapers before they have coaches. In China they miss their entire childhood with family & friends by being sent to training centers. Figure skating is another extreme example of top tier athletes needing to start so very young. We're never going to return to the early days of a Bodie Miller, who lived in his car with his father/coach before winning a gold medal in Olympic downhill skiing. Sadly, it's all about money. Parents are exploiting their children to attain their financial goals, not to make their kids happy.

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Bob I think this is also true of those parents over there in the US who dress their little girls up like grown women with make up and clothes to match and enter them in 'child beauty pageants' I think they are called.

I think these children should be playing outside and getting messed up, to me they are having their childhoods stolen..

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When I was writing my post I had those little girls in mind as well but didn't think I should write a book on the long list of exploitations over here, so I centered my thoughts on sports. Thank you for bringing up the fashion/modeling viewpoint.

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Hi Bob, you seem to have been absent for a while (But so have I while on one of my trips around Europe!)

It can't be long before your big trip either, or have I missed that too!

Anyway, to get back on subject, I agree entirely with your post, so many kids are just acting out the ambitions of their parents, money comes into it, and it all gets very nasty when personal trainers, managers, and God only knows who else are involved, and like you say in some countries it's the state doing all the pushing with objective of getting more medals at the next world event.

The Olympics are comming up in London next year, a few of the smaller countries will have one or two athletes who have talent but most competitors will have been groomed from a young age to compete and will be expected to do well or their future life will be bleak.

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Losos - I've been on here almost daily so I think it must be that other than the Good Morning thread I've not been checking out the other areas as I should. I leave on my vacation July 20th, just 4 days from now. I'm already packed and ready to go.

Where have the stories gone like the the Jamaican bobsled team who had to borrow a sled to compete. Or how about the famous "Eddie the Eagle", who bravely jumped off the 100 meter ski jump hill, having never done that before. Few countries have the budget or dedicated athletes to compete for medals but I love the pure competition of sports. That's why the United States will never have a successful professional soccer team with American born players. We have to "import" our players.

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In case I miss the off day Bob have a brilliant time, Annie.

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I think it's more likely I've been away and I don't seem to be able to log in here as often as I would like, anyway good to see you're still around

July 20th. good luck on your travels and we expect lots of piccies, knowing you that should be no problem

'Eddie the Eagle' yes he's still around and much loved by a lot of Brits even if the media did make fun of him

I also love the pure competition of sport but I just can't help feeling that the original concept has been overtaken by technology, computers, pharmaceutical research, and plain greed in the 'hangers on' a lot of sport seems to have lost it's appeal to me. Maybe I'm just getting old

Bye for now - Losos