I do not understand that. For years the only ones without pros were American teams.
The original Olympics were for the best athletes of then ancient World, not amateur. They were all professional warriors and paid assassins who fought for the highest dollar. in short, they were all professionally paid athletes.
Olympics should always be the best athletes, not the best college kids.
Amateurism is a scam. It was created to keep the “deplorables” out of sports. If Jim Thorpe was a Boston Brahmin from Harvard, does anyone honestly think he would have been stripped of his medals?
In 1986, professional athletes were given permission by the International Federation to compete in each sport of the Olympic Games.
The Olympics were originally designed to allow amateur athletes the chance to compete on an international stage. Per Vice, the origins of modern-day Olympics had more to do with classism than professional status, but still, amateurism was regarded as an easy way to level the playing field.
Today, the only two sports in the Olympics that require participants to be amateur are Wrestling and boxing..
I just think the Olympics should be amateur athletics...PERIOD...