Olympics: Games without a soul - Snell

SYDNEY - New Zealand athletics legend Peter Snell believes the Olympic Games have lost their soul since he won his three gold medals in the early 1960s.

Snell, who is in Sydney with a number of other former middle- distance greats, including compatriot John Walker, feels money and drugs have tarnished Olympic ideals.

A part-time athlete in his heyday, he also questioned the move to allow professionals, such as National Basketball Association basketballers, to compete at the Olympics.

"It's not of as much interest to me now that the drug and money stuff is in there," he said. "I think it's terrible that the NBA is in there, that professional tennis players are in there, that the commercialism is rampant and out of control."

Snell, an assistant professor of medicine in Dallas, Texas, said up-and-coming American athletes today felt they needed to concentrate on their sport full-time to be successful.

But he believed the amateur ethos of his day captured the public imagination more.

"I actually have people coming up to me and saying, 'we remember your era better because you all were for real, you had jobs,'" he said. "Today's it's just different."

While it would be nice to be able to run full-time, "I think you do need to have something else to occupy you mind."

Snell also expressed little faith in testing procedures eliminating drug cheats.

"I'm sure that testing hasn't got rid of them all, and you really don't know who's on it and who's not," he said.

"It creams off some of them, but it makes it better for some who can get away with it."

Snell won the 800m gold medal in Rome in 1960 and the 800m-1500m double in Tokyo four years later, while Walker won the 1500m in Montreal in 1976.

After visiting the Stadium Australia track, Snell said it was fast but he did not believe there would be many, if any, marks broken at the 2000 Olympics.

Despite American Maurice Greene smashing the 100m record earlier this month, Snell believed the human cardiovascular system was approaching its maximum potential. - NZPA