Shamateurism is an issue which sometimes arises at the elite level of competitive sports which require participants to be amateurs. In some cases it is possible for successful competitors to find people or organisations willing to give them financial rewards for their participation or achievements, making a "sham" of their amateur status.

The Olympics

Until the late 20th century the Olympics nominally only accepted amateur athletes. However, successful Olympians from Western countries often had endorsement contracts from sponsors. Complex rules involving the payment of the athlete's earnings into trust funds rather than directly to the athletes themeselves, were developed in an attempt to work around this issue, but the intellectual evasion involved was considered embarrassing to the Olympic movement and the key Olympic sports by some. In the same era, the nations of the Communist bloc entered teams of Olympians who were all nominally students or working in a profession, but many of whom were in reality paid by the state to train on a full time basis. The first Olympics to officially accept professional athletes was...erm, either 1988 or 1992.

Team sports

The team sport which has had the greatest problems with shamateurism is probably rugby union. This was a reflection of the social distinction between mainly middle class rugby union and mainly working class rugby league, a separate sport which was founded in the late 19th century by a group of clubs which wished to be able to pay their players openly. In the 1980s and 1990s there were mounting allegations that the top players were in fact making a living from the game to some degree. This was an issue in most of the main rugby union playing countries, including England, South Africa and Australia national rugby union team. This was damaging to the image of the sport, and in 1995 the International Rugby Board decided to open the sport to professionals.

English cricket maintained a division between Amateur and professional cricketers until 1963, but ways were sometimes found to give the "amateurs" financial compensation, especially after 1945.

The present day

By the early 21st Century the Olympics and all the major team sports accepted professional competitors, so shamateurism is unlikely to be a major issue in the future. However there are still some sports which maintain a distinction between amateur and professional status, with separate competitions for the latter, most prominently golf. Problems can arise in this situation, for example when sponsors offer to help with an amateur's playing expenses in the hope of striking lucrative endorsement deals with them if they turn professional at a later date, but this is perhaps better seen as corruption or simply cheating than as true "shamateurism".

See also

Amateur and professional cricketers