Katrina from Belarus mounts the balance beam.  Al Trautwig regales us with tales of her upbringing that includes years of training...in Los Angeles.  And so goes another OlympiAD.  Sure the Olympic ideal still exists in those nations that send an Olympic team where if you blink during the opening ceremonies, you'll miss that country's contingent.  "Here is the Palestine squad - complete with a marathon runner and an archer.  Oh and Suriname has just entered the stadium.  He'll be doing the speedwalking."

For the rest of the world, the Olympic ideal is to find out which nation is currently prodcing the best undetectable drugs.  Then they all can send their next batch of athletes to train in that nation, and ultimately compete on behalf of the motherland (which they likely haven't seen in two years).

Alternatively, one could be raised, schooled, and employed in the United States, and also employed in another country, and then play for said other country.  Did you get all that?  Perhaps Becky Hammon can explain it better.  Becky plays in the WNBA, which pays okay, but it's meager compared to the 4 years/$2 million she will receive from Russian professional club  CSKA.  It has been hinted that the contract value is correlated to her participation in the Olympics as a Russian. 

What's the problem?  As has been determined, people train in the USA, use our resources, and then play for another country.  Alternatively, US Soccer has used liberal ancestral rules to gain access to players.  All you need is one grandparent born in a country to claim an Olympic claim.  The Greek softball team was full of Americans.  So why does this one matter?

Becky Hammon has no such ties.  Her dual citizenship was fast-tracked after signing her contract.  She doesn't even speak the language.  She is doing what's best for her, and that's fine.  The hammer and sickle has long since fallen, and doing alright by yourself is now legal in Russia.  But one can't help but wonder how appropriate it is for her to leverage her Olympic availability into a lucrative deal.  The question for the IJWMFTT community is: Does the Olympic ideal still exist, or did it die with the Dream Team?  Then again, Larry Bird could have rested his back.  And Magic had his own set of circumstances.  So even in the Dream Team era, people have put country first.