HIST 3125 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Panathenaic Games, Egalitarianism, Keles
Document Summary
Lecture 8: amateurs and professionals; heroes and sport. Old view: athletes were originally all amateurs from the social elite. Over time athletes became professionals and more athletes emerged from the lower classes. Over-competition, as well shall see, led only too soon to specialization and professionalism with its attendant evils: it proved fatal to the true amateur spirit. The very popularity of athletics was their undoing. Excess begets nemesis: the nemesis of excess in athletics is professionalism, which is the death of all true sport. Pleket (1974): greek athletes were never amateur; competition was always limited to the social elite. D. c. young (1984): greek athletes were never amateur; competition was never limited to the social elite. Miller"s naked democracy : egalitarianism of athletics (problematic) Professional = someone who is engaged in a specified activity as one"s main paid occupation rather than as a pastime. In sporting contexts, amateurism and professionalism is defined primarily by the receipt of material rewards.
