This did not come easily. Avery Brundage, an American of unbearable superciliousness, was the president of the International Olympic Committee for years. He commonly dismissed al professionals as “trained seals,” professionalism of the Games-or, rather, the honest recognition thereof-followed quickly upon the retirement in 1972 of Brundage, a man called “Slavery” behind his back. The current IOC resident Juan Antonio Samaranch, is, to his credit, almost manic in seeking to let the best compete and never mind who foots whose bill. Essentially, Samaranch has handed over the issue of amateurism to the various sports federation although intimating strongly to those hidebound federation potentates that it was time for them to step out of the shadows of the 18th century.
The result has been progressive, albeit not always logical, with a patchwork of differing canons. Some sports, for example, permit pros but no bonuses for Olympic medals. Others are flat-out salaried; yet still others funnel athletes their checks through a device called, in utter contradiction of its first name, a trust fund.
But if the vestigial amateur ghost hangs on, so the wisest athletic lairds understand that, generally, the more open a sport is, the better it thrives. Only last month the International Skating Union finally rewrote its rules in a way that should allow Kristi Yamaguchi to remain in the Olympics in ‘94, and Brian Boitano to return. Most sports federations are usually run by the worst form of volunteers, bush-league Perotians looking for a little power in their humdrum lives-and they hold high the banner of amateurism simply because it’s a great deal easier to control indigent young athletes. That explains why the U.S.A. Basketball federation fought against letting NBA players into the Olympics when almost everyone else in the world devoutly sought them.
Of course, corruption runs wild in “amateur” college sports. It never made any sense to anybody but Americans that athletes would be granted, say, annual $15,000 scholarships and still be called amateurs. It makes even less sense to pretend that churchmouse-poor football and basketball players aren’t remunerated in sundry other ways to help Alma Mater attract box-office and TV contracts.
These myths are sustained, though, by the belief that we can yet return to a finer time, that erstwhile golden amateur age. That’s balderdash; it never existed. Yale was the first football factory, and college football was a rotten borough virtually from its inception. So, too, the very Greek amateur legend is itself a false ideal. The Greek champions were properly trained seals who received all manner of cash and land bonuses.
Baron de Coubertin, the founder of modern Olympics, needed the British in his tent, and so he pretty much ceded the eligibility issue. After all, British sportsmen were purportedly responsible for Wellington’S best day. Basically, though, the British amateur strictures were conceived foremost to keep the working scum out, inasmuch as only the well-to-do could afford the time to practice sport on the cuff. Ultimately, in America this policy would mean that Jim Thorpe would be stripped of his gold medals, because the poor fellow had once played some semipro baseball for a few bucks a game without having the wit to play under an assumed name, the way Ivy Leaguers did.
Today, Americans lag behind even the British in acknowledging that it takes time and money to compete world class anywhere in the world. By now, for example, tennis, which professionalism rescued from shame and obscurity-remember “tennis bums”?-has no amateur status whatsoever in Europe, even for children. In U.S. sports involved with colleges, though, Americans still struggle on, making up eligibility rules that, by definition, must foster hanky-panky and cynicism. Day by day, the National Collegiate Athletic Association strives to construct pins, so that it may stay in business, counting the number of angels thereon.
Meanwhile, the IOC is accused of being frightfully political, commercial, corrupt, tyrannical and so on and so forth. OK, this is probably a fair assessment. But what did you expect? Flawlessness? The IOC did throw out the nonsense of amateurism, and that’s good enough for me. Now the Dream Team of millionaire basketball players should put an end forever to us fretting about Olympic amateurism. The subject is closed. Would that America could be so honorable with its own sweaty domestic amateur divertissements, where everybody makes money but the athletes.
Professionals can play as long as they’re 23 or under. This keeps the world’s best players out of the Olymics, saving luster for the World Cup.
No pros allowed. But athletes can be paid for training expenses, win prize money at meets and endorse sports gear.
Before 1989, pros-defined as NBA players-were prohibited. A 1989 vote changed that rule: enter the Dream Team.
Pros still banned. The U.S. Baseball Federation funds the training expenses of players. Big money awaits kids who make it in the major leagues.
Athletes can receive prize money, but it must be funneled through a trust fund. When they retire, anything left in the fund is theirs.
