America's love affair with the Olympics may have started with a Wheaties box in 1958.  Faced with declining sales, General Mills hired Bob Richards, three-time Olympian with two golds and a bronze in the pole vault, to be spokesman for the "Breakfast of Champions."  Wheaties thus began its long association with Olympic champions on the box.  Richards was the quintessential Olympic athlete -- a pure amateur who constantly worked on his fitness and turned up every four years to win a medal.
     Olympic champs have graced the Wheaties box ever since for every generation of sports nuts and the prospective athletes.  Wheaties certainly realizes its role as it recently started a new campaign to feature great former Olympians.

     It was Richards' amateur status that made him especially notable during the Cold War as the Olympics was drawn into the battleground.  Amateurism became the symbol for American participation in the Olympics.  We sent college kids while Russia (aka Soviet Union) "paid" its athletes by giving them token jobs in the military while they trained year 'round for the Olympics.  From then until the famous "Dream Team" of NBA stars was a long road of debate and national soul searching over subsidizing American athletes.  The Olympics of 2012 is a gathering of year-round professional athletes supported by donations, prize money and tax dollars.
     This of course is a far cry from the scenes depicted in "Chariots of Fire" when a British athlete was threatened with dismissal because he used a professional coach.  So much unnecessary anguish over the years has not dimmed the Olympic dream for athletes or spectators.
     Thankfully, the debate is long over.  Virtually all athletes have access to financial support.  For a sports nut headed for London, it doesn't get any better than the opportunity to watch the world's best athletes.