Fighting for a Place in the Olympics and a Get Out of Jail Free Card

Lately I have been hearing and seeing more commercials touting February’s upcoming winter Olympic Games. That and I have been walking myself and a dog or two with a good friend who just happened to mention to me that in Thailand prison inmates can get out of jail free if they are good enough to make that country’s Olympic boxing team. And I thought, Wow, from hardened criminal to national Olympics hero that really is something to blog about! Then I started thinking about all those prison movies where the prisoners become amazing athletes. And then I took that thought one step further and thought about how so many amazing athletes throw their careers away and end up in prison. So I figured I’d go ahead and look into the get out of jail free business in Thailand and I found out that prisoners really are vying for places in the Olympic Boxing arena and have been since 2009. I also discovered that boxing isn't one of the winter Olympic sports so I won’t see them doing that in February, but that’s okay because the winter sports are always interesting to me. I guess I just love seeing that snow and knowing I don’t have to drive in it.