Good question, glad you asked.  For one thing, it surely isnt a medal, no matter how shiny it is! Just as a man’s worth can’t be judged by the size of his wallet!

 Great Olympic champions, are those who are incredible humanitarians!  People that surge from the back of the pack with regards to mankind, not a race or a sporting event.  Someone who has nothing yet elevates their performance to heights known by very few, for others.

 You see, being an Olympic Champion isnt about the riches and accolades received once you win a Gold Medal, its about what you do with that platform.  As an example, Joey Cheek Olympic Gold Medalist in speedskating.  Not the most well known.  Maybe Eric Heiden, Dan Jansen or Apolo Anton Ohno is.  But for my money, Joey is the best representation of giving to others in a non self centered way!

He donated his medal money to a charity that needed help and more importantly, needed the huge visibility boost that came along with his kind gesture!  I wonder if your average basketball player making millions of dollars in the NBA would consider doing the same?

Doubt it.  In this culture of me and i first, why would they?  I dont blame the athletes really because they are just a pawn in the owner’s game of “Human Domination” using sports as a metaphor for the current climate they have created.

When Kobe Bryant wants to be traded, its not because he wants another title, i think its because the young boy inside of him is yearning for attention.  This type of attention deficit disorder comes when children are forced to be grown men because they have super human athletic talents but are not mature enough to handle the mental aspects of the Game.

So back to my premise, what makes a great Olympic champion?  For me, its one word and one word only: Character!  Try avoid being one and if you dont understand, then you will never know the feeling of being a Champion!

Sorry Bode!!!!

Ok, its time to decide which part of your brain do you use to reason with??  Its a simple question.  I am not asking if you love child #1 more than child #3.  I didnt ask you to take Notre Dame over Michigan, Yanks over Red Sox, Serbs v Croats (wow did i just cover world events?  Mom, see my education was worth the $300k and all that drinking!).  Oh, sorry, right stay focused….

So here is a choice you dont have to make, but you should consider.  Because ladies and gentleman, the IOC is trying to make the Olympics the X Games and the action sports athletes hate the Olympics!  You hear words like: sell out, gnarly, capitalist pigs…  On and on.  I read this stuff all the time.  I truly actually understand it.  I applaud the action sports set for hating the Olympics.  I would too if i was them.  Its like a farmer who grows wild flowers on 300 acres of untouched Oregon farmland.  And all of the sudden decides that it is more financially lucrative to grow cabbage!  Stinky, smelly, cabbage.  Those acres of wild flowers that illuminated the fields are now being used for the primary ingredient in cole slaw.

I guess my point is this, if the Olympics are not cool, hip and fun, do what all good multi national corporations do, buy them!  Yep, you heard it here.  Anarchy, yes, but that is the way of the world purists!  Get used to it.  John Lennon is unfortunately dead longer than most of you are alive.  The IOC should just buy the X Games, damn they have gizillions of $s!  Keep them separate but infuse the Games with what makes action sports so great, its unpredictability.   You cant tell me that the crazy dude that jumped with his bike like 45,000 feet or something and crashed wasnt like Eddie the Eagle crash landing at the ski jump at the winter Olympics in 1998? 

There are somethings that are alike.  Lastly, i would appoint a board of action sports athletes to run the Olympics:  Tony Hawk, Shaun White, Kelly Slater, Ross Powers, Ryan Sheckler, and a bunch of others.  How much worse can they do than the people who are currently making it obsolete???

BTW, BMX biking on an ice skating rink with spiked tires and dudes in leotards is bad ass!

Welcome to Gold Medal Greats, the blog about Olympic athletes, famous sports heroes and Olympian celebrities.  In the posts that follow, you will be reading about events, people and opinions related to the upcoming Olympic games and of past games, too.