INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC ACADEMY 7th JOINT - IOA

Whereas the Alpine Skiing contents had already been cancelled
for the Olympic Winter Games planned for 1940 16 because of the
refusal of the Fédération Internationale de Ski to submit to the
regulations of amateurism, a new debate around this topic began after
the Olympic Games of Innsbruck in 1964. It developed until the
Games of Sapporo eight years later. The Meeting of the Executive
Commission held in Madrid from the October 5 to October 8 1965 led
to the creation of a sub-Commission charged with examining the
situation of amateurism, which was outstanding as had showed a true
sense of urgency for resolving this problem. A Commission of inquiry
came also into creation in February 1968 in Grenoble. Its goal was to
determine if the Olympic Winter Games had to be maintained and, in
the event of an affirmative answer, to investigate measures that could
increase their value from the point of view of the Olympic ideal.
Parallel to that, a sub-Commission called "Eligibility sub-Commission
no. 2" worked on the topic "amateurism and eligibility". With this
measure, the I.O.C. truly assumed responsibility for the problem.
A new regulation came into effect on April 5, 1971. Until this, any
participant had been required to conform to the old rules. These two
are distinguished particularly on one point: henceforth, any
photography of an athlete bearing the name of a product, whatever it
was, would be regarded as sufficient proof for the disqualification of
this athlete. No more distinction would be made between the one paid
for these photographs and the others as before. Two objectives were
here achieved by the I.O.C.: on the one hand, without investigating
untraceable evidence of payment, the I.O.C. could now fight against
the numerous publicities made by athletes; in the other hand, it
answered questions raised by newspapers from many countries which,
with the support of the photographs, had showed up the weaknesses of
the I.O.C on this subject. Consequently, a great part of the
correspondence between the I.O.C., the Fédération Internationale de
Ski and the National Olympic Committees would turn around the
eligibility of the athletes.
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