Adam Scott and Bernard Tomic’s refusal, and Nick Kyrigos’ reluctance to represent Australia at the Rio Olympics is a sad indictment on the mindset of an increasing number of professional sportsmen.
It must sadden and disappoint Olympic legends, like Dawn Fraser and Herb Elliott, that the financial incentive to play in other sporting events takes priority over representing your country.
Surely the honour of representing your country at an Olympic Games and the opportunity to attain a medal should be the pinnacle of any athlete’s career.
However, in the case of Tomic and Kyrigos, it may well be a blessing in disguise, with their unsportsmanlike conduct and petulant behaviour far from befitting a professional athlete representing Australia.
They may be Australia’s top two male tennis players, but their lack of respect for officialdom and their repeated transgressions would make them a liability if they were selected to represent our nation at the Rio games.
The prerequisite to represent your country should be that you do so with pride and passion, and perform to the best of your ability at all times.
It’s fair to say that the jury is still out on whether Tomic and Kyrigos meet the criteria.
Johnno
Guest
It's the Zika virus why there not going. And if it's scheduling stuff, of the Olympics that will harm there preparations for other tournaments, blame the IOC and the ITF for that, treating players with contempt and slave labour, expecting them to turn up(and cover all the logistic costs for free). Do the IOC pay athletes to turn up(give em a slice of the profits, I think not. Not sure most Olympic athletes are even paid by there own Olympic committee to turn up). It's a rort. So any athlete giving the Bird a big up yours to the IOC or ITF or Tennis Australia, I can't blame em.
Statler and Waldorf
Roar Guru
I'm pretty sure that they both play Davis Cup for Aus which proves that they are happy to represent Aus. It's more an indication that sport's with major events outside of the Olympics, such as grand slams, majors, world cups etc , don't have a place in the Olympics as the Olympics are not the pinnacle of the sport as it is for swimming, running, gymnastics etc