This was the same mindset and ‘gentlemen only’ sports limitation that lost Jim Thorpe his Olympic medals, he had played football for pay in the summers while at college. Disregard the fact that otherwise he would have had to quit school, the Olympics were for amateurs only.
It was only after he was long dead that this injustice was rectified by the IOC. Big whoop!
Oops, make that semi-pro baseball.