INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC ACADEMY 7th JOINT - IOA

with the end of the mandate of Avery Brundage, seems to constitute a
rupture in the history of the Olympic Movement. The debate around
amateurism declined in importance from this moment.
There is a lot at stake when dealing with the issue of amateurism
are numerous and varied. From the point of view of the countries
which participated at the Games, the goal was to remain in the norm,
or at least to make it believe, while explaining their failures by the
presence of adversaries having exceeded it. For Avery Brundage and
certain members of the I.O.C., the maintenance of amateurism
conditioned the maintenance of every positive thing in the Olympic
Movement. But at the same time, this amateurism seemed to endanger
the common interests of skiers, manufacturers, tourism and the media.
Both sides developed their own ideological explanation supposed
to show how their point of view was the only acceptable one, which
took into account the perceived social reality of the time and therefore
was the only one that answered a moral or ethical ideal. Consequently,
to find a consensus about the concept of amateurism was much more
difficult than it appears. For a true consensus would imply that these
disparate groups, with their opposing interests and cultures, had
agreed on a whole range of subjects.
NOTES
1 We address our thanks to the members of the Olympic Studies Center of the
Olympic Museum of Lausanne for their reception and their assistance throughout
our research.
2 MAUSS, Marcel (2003 [1950]), « Essai sur le don. Forme et raison de l’échange
dans les sociétés archaïques », in Sociologie et anthropologie, Paris, Presses
Universitaires de France, pp. 145-283.
3 See MAYER, Otto (1960), A travers les anneaux olympiques, Genève, Pierre
Cailler, 331 p. ; GLADER, Eugene A. (1978), Amateurism and Athletics, New York,
Leisure Press, 224 p.
4 Close to the beginning of the Olympic Games of Sapporo, the Austrian skier Karl
Schranz, the best skier in that era, was not allowed to participate. The I.O.C. judged
he was not in accordance with the eligibility rule because of professionalism. Many
thousands of persons acclaimed him at his arrival in Vienna and protested against
what they saw as an injustice, arguing that no athlete was amateur in 1972.
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