Bowling in the Olympics. Is it necessary? Is it an absolute must? Does it deserve all the blood, sweat, tears, begging, cow-towing, and unrelenting attempts of our proud officials at selling our game to pompous officials of the International Olympic Committee?

Do all outstanding leaders in bowling like Jack Reichert, Jerry Koenig, Darold Dobs, Joyce Deitch, the late Frank Baker, and others too numerous to mention deserve to be treated like beggars looking for handouts?

Above all, is bowling any less a sport than badminton, table tennis, synchronized swimming, dancing, and beach volleyball? Beach volleyball? What a joke! How many countries in the world have beaches? Besides, bowlers outnumber volleyball players 1,000 to 1.

With all due respect to Mr. Reichert, officials of ABC/WIBC, and other leaders of the bowling industry, I believe our efforts are an exercise in futility. It is disgraceful that our game resorted to beseeching, imploring, and panhandling efforts that have relegated bowling to the most minute status of Olympic competition.

When will bowling assume golf's attitude toward the Olympics? Golf officials have informed the IOC that their sport has no desire to be a part of the World Games and harbors no aspirations to participate in what has become a political football in the world of sports.

Golf issued a statement: It does not need the Olympics. The sport has its own agenda, its own television programs, and it is perfectly content with its network exposure.

Most of all, it has not submitted to the ever-growing greed of the modern Olympics. And, like it or not, puritanical as it may seem, the Olympics have been usurped and driven by greed. Anyone doubting this statement might want to consider the following disbursements by commercial giants that have monopolized the games.

Cost of staging the Atlanta games: $1.7 billion. Fee for U.S. television rights: $450 million. For European rights: $250 million. Advertising revenue generated by NBC: $675 million.

U.S. Olympic Committee budget for the quadrennial: $400 million. Amount of Coca-Cola expenditures for several areas of Olympic sponsorship: $350 million.

Cost of a major corporate partnership: $409 million (for displaying logos). Inside the Olympic rings existed a six-story Coke bottle.

Reported annual salary of Billy Payne, CEO of the Atlantic Committee for the Olympic Games: $669,122.

Does this sound a bit commercial? If this isn't enough, consider this: Corporate entertainment included the following: UPS, 2,200 guests to the show; AT&T, 3,000 guests; Eastman Kodak, 4,000 guests. In addition, Kodak planned a lunch for 300 guests.

Avon Products had planned an event near Underground Atlanta, a major mall in downtown Atlanta, but police evacuated a five-block area, including Avon's park site, after a suspicious package was found.

All in all, commercialism reigned supreme at the 1996 World Olympics. In short, greed overwhelmingly overtook the true spirit of the games. Professional athletes have taken over and are here to stay. They attract more sponsor dollars, and television has become the predominant force. For example, Brad Lewis, a rower, is quoted on how to achieve instant fame: "All you have to do is stand behind the gymnasts at any ceremony. The cameras go wherever they go."

While innocent bowling fans around the country question the method of selection for Olympic-hopeful bowlers, let it be known that IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch has gone on record to say the prime criteria for Olympic participation is to field the best available athletes, amateur or professional. Does this mean the U.S. must deliver to the games such bowlers as Walter Ray Williams Jr., Norm Duke, Mike Aulby, Parker Bohn III, Brian Voss, Pete Weber, and any of the 30 or 40 top professional bowlers? Is this what the Olympics are all about? Does this mean amateurs who may possibly be as good or perhaps better than some pros have no chance to compete?

In the world of sports, it is an assumed or foregone conclusion that professional athletes are the crème de la crème and the best at their game. Weren't the games originally designed for amateurs?

Jim Thorpe, arguably the greatest athlete of all time, was stripped of all medals earned while competing in the Olympics. He annihilated all opposition, only to be subsequently shamed and destroyed because he had picked up some pocket change as a baseball player.

Today, Olympic stars representing Nike, Reebok, and other manufacturers make millions of dollars in endorsements while hawking shoes that cost more per pair than Thorpe made in a week.

As a matter of fact, one of the biggest stories to come out of the Olympic Games was the humongous $125 million contract agreement between Shaquille O'Neal and the Los Angeles Lakers. This at the revered Olympics!

Here is another example supporting my charges of greed: U.S. softball star pitcher Lisa Fernandez, who pitched all her career where no admission was charged, learned that tickets for her championship game at the Olympics were being scalped for $300.

Perhaps the most heartwarming statement of the entire Olympics came from Matt Ghaffari, a native of Iran. The American Greco-Roman super-heavyweight wrestler who captured a silver medal stated, "I gave the silver medal to my father, who had the courage to bring us to the United States. I promised to win the gold, and now I cry every time I hear the "Star-Spangled Banner" because I didn't hear it that day. I felt like I had let my new country down."

This is the true spirit of the Olympics. This is the way it was originally designed. But, that was then. This is now!

Do we really want any part of this? Worse yet, should we have to stoop to partake in it? I say No!

I have been thoroughly impressed with the spirit, the friendship, the camaraderie, and the appreciation of good talent displayed at the FIQ Games, bowling's top international competition. I would suggest the powers of the bowling industry pool their entire efforts and resources toward making the FIQ the real Olympics for bowling. With over 60 countries around the world participating in friendly spirit, bowling must come to grips with the fruitless, agonizing, failed attempts at becoming an accepted sport in the International Olympics.

Let's stop trying to buy our way in. Let's stop contributing to money mongers of the IOC while assuming the role of a lapdog. The United States should completely embrace the FIQ, take the bull by the horns, and lead the world of tenpins on its own path to glory, fulfillment, contentment, and satisfaction.