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From: citrin@ucbvax.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.misc
Subject: Re: amateurs in Olympics
Message-ID: <804@ucbvax.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 19-May-84 06:11:30 EDT
Article-I.D.: ucbvax.804
Posted: Sat May 19 06:11:30 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 20-May-84 00:35:09 EDT
References: <1164@rti.UUCP>
Organization: U.C. Berkeley
Lines: 15

One thing I want to point out concerning crn@rti's article on
amateurism: the Olympics were not revived by an Englishman, but by a
Frenchman, Baron de Coubertin.  Apparently he was an Anglophile who
believed that amateur sports, particularly as practiced in British
public schools, were the reason for the vitality of British
culture and he wished to instill those virtues in French youth.  
A revived Olympics were the vehicle he decided upon.

What were the original reasons for amateur sport?  One, of course,
was to keep sport the province of the upper class.  Supposedly another 
was a belief that professional athletes were more likely to be in the pay
of bookies.  

Wayne Citrin
(ucbvax!citrin)