Chess wouldn’t make it however, as us Americans would get smoked, just like in geopolitics.

ROTFL!!! Sad but true.

ΝΙΚΗ Ή ΘΑΝΑΤΟΣ

That's not true. Women's softball is still on the game plan.

Nor would I. But let us concede that the classical Olympic Games are as unrecoverable a treasure as the so-called "Elgin" marbles.

But why cannot Greece revive the Pythian Games? Seize the initiative and showcase the Glory That Was Greece! They would open with the traditional invocation to Apollo. Some pretty dancing priestesses. The Pythia would inhale a hallucingenic effusion and deliver herself of some garbled hexameters. No commercial breaks. If all goes well, the Nemean and Isthmian games can be added later.

Of course, we will have to make concessions to the women. Not just as spectators. As competitors. No more girls in bikinis, indeed! In the nude! Let the gymnasts be gymnai! You'll never look at the pankration the same way again.

Of course, it's all doomed to failure. The IOC would lure viewers with mudwrestling. οὕτως διέρχεται ἡ τοῦ κόσμου δόξα.

If other countries, states, or towns, want to have their amateur games, fine. Back in Old New England, towns used to compete against one another via football and that became quite violent. Who needs that sort of "competition."

I had a blast as an amateur in Vermont and there were never any fisticuffs involved. I grew up playing baseball, football, basketball and golf but the most difficult amateur event I ever tried was writing love poems to the pretty young girl who lived in a town adjacent to mine.

More poetry. Fewer organised athletic events.

I hate to contribute to your disillusionment, but the Gay Games are apparently alive and well.

One couldn't really lose money selling handbaskets these days.