[Lukas_Skywalker]

„Early days“ is until 1990 in that case, which is surprisingly late. Some nations got around the ban by employing the athletes as soldiers and allowing them to prepare almost full time though.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic_Games#Amateurism_and...

[nradov]

The US Army still does that through the World Class Athletic Program. It's an effective recruiting and morale program.

https://www.armywcap.com/

[apocadam]

Thanks for the link, this made me chuckle:

There was also a prevailing concept of fairness, in which practising or training was considered tantamount to cheating.[176] Those who practised a sport professionally were considered to have an unfair advantage over those who practised it merely as a hobby.[176]