I played in the 1982, 83, and 85 games. They were great, especially for smaller sports like team handball because it really gave the sport some exposure. One of the problems was sports like track and field became more professional [meets gave large appearance fees to the name stars] and those athletes had less motivation to give time from their schedules. This made it less appealing for ABC/ESPN to broadcast, and so the money dried up. After '96 the Olympic Committee started focusing on sports we had won medals in, and reduced funding to sports we had not medaled in. A real Catch 22 if you ask
