Anamateur (from French 'one who loves'[1]) is generally considered a person who pursues anavocation independent from their source of income. Amateurs and their pursuits are also described as popular, informal,self-taught,user-generated,DIY, andhobbyist.[2]
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Historically, the amateur was considered to be the ideal balance between pure intent, open mind, and the interest or passion for a subject. That ideology spanned many different fields of interest. It may have its roots in theancient Greek philosophy ofamateur athletes competing in theOlympics. The ancient Greek citizens spent most of their time in other pursuits, but competed according to their natural talents and abilities.
The "gentleman amateur" was a phenomenon among thegentry ofGreat Britain from the 17th century until the 20th century.[3] With the start of theAge of Reason, with people thinking more about how the world works around them, (seescience in the Age of Enlightenment), things like thecabinets of curiosities, and the writing of the bookThe Christian Virtuoso, started to shape the idea of the gentleman amateur. He was vastly interested in a particular topic, and studied, observed, and collected things and information on his topic of choice. TheRoyal Society in Great Britain was generally composed of these "gentleman amateurs", and is one of the reasons science today exists the way it does. A few examples of these gentleman amateurs areFrancis Bacon,Isaac Newton, andSir Robert Cotton, 1st Baronet, of Connington.
Amateurism can be seen in both a negative and positive light. Since amateurs often lack formal training and are self-taught, some amateur work may be considered sub-par. For example, amateur athletes in sports such asbasketball,baseball, orfootball are regarded as possessing a lower level of ability than professional athletes. On the other hand, an amateur may be in a position to approach a subject with an open mind (as a result of the lack of formal training) and in a financially disinterested manner. An amateur who dabbles in a field out of interest rather than as a profession, or possesses a general but superficial interest in any art or a branch of knowledge, is often referred to as adilettante.
Through most of the 20th century the Olympics allowed only amateur athletes to participate and this amateur code was strictly enforced,Jim Thorpe was stripped oftrack and field medals for having taken expense money for playing baseball in 1912.
Later on, the nations of theCommunist Bloc entered teams of Olympians who were all nominallystudents,soldiers, or working in a profession, but many of whom were in reality paid by the state to train on a full-time basis.[4]
Near the end of the 1960s, theCanadian Amateur Hockey Association (CAHA) felt their amateur players could no longer be competitive against the Soviet team's full-time athletes and the other constantly improving European teams. They pushed for the ability to use players from professional leagues but met opposition from theInternational Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) and theInternational Olympic Committee (IOC). At the IIHF Congress in 1969, the IIHF decided to allow Canada to use nine non-NHL professional hockey players[5] at the 1970 World Championships inMontreal andWinnipeg,Manitoba, Canada.[6] The decision was reversed in January 1970 after IOC PresidentAvery Brundage said that ice hockey's status as an Olympic sport would be in jeopardy if the change was made.[5] In response, Canada withdrew from all international ice hockey competitions and officials stated that they would not return until "open competition" was instituted.[5][7]Günther Sabetzki became president of the IIHF in 1975 and helped to resolve the dispute with the CAHA. In 1976, the IIHF agreed to allow "open competition" between all players in the World Championships. However, NHL players were still not allowed to play in the Olympics, because of the unwillingness of the NHL to take a break mid-season and the IOC's amateur-only policy.[8]
Before the1984 Winter Olympics, a dispute formed over what made a player a professional. The IOC had adopted a rule that made any player who had signed an NHL contract but played less than ten games in the league eligible. However, theUnited States Olympic Committee maintained that any player contracted with an NHL team was a professional and therefore not eligible to play. The IOC held an emergency meeting that ruled NHL-contracted players were eligible, as long as they had not played in any NHL games.[9] This made five players on Olympic rosters—one Austrian, two Italians and two Canadians—ineligible. Players who had played in other professional leagues—such as theWorld Hockey Association—were allowed to play.[9] Canadian hockey officialAlan Eagleson stated that the rule was only applied to the NHL and that professionally contracted players in European leagues were still considered amateurs.[10]Murray Costello of the CAHA suggested that a Canadian withdrawal was possible.[11] In 1986, the IOC voted to allow all athletes to compete in Olympic Games starting in 1988,[12] but let the individual sport federations decide if they wanted to allow professionals.[13]
After the 1972 retirement of IOC President Brundage, the Olympic amateurism rules were steadily relaxed, amounting only to technicalities and lip service, until being completely abandoned in the 1990s (in theUnited States, theAmateur Sports Act of 1978 prohibits national governing bodies from having more stringent standards of amateur status than required by international governing bodies of respective sports. The act caused the breakup of theAmateur Athletic Union as a wholesale sports governing body at the Olympic level).
Olympic regulations regarding amateur status of athletes were eventually abandoned in the 1990s with the exception of wrestling, where the amateur fight rules are used because professional wrestling is largely staged with predetermined outcomes. Starting from the2016 Summer Olympics, professionals were allowed to compete in boxing, though amateur fight rules are still used for the tournament.[14]
Many amateurs make valuable contributions in the field ofcomputer programming through theopen source movement.[15]Amateur dramatics is the performance ofplays ormusical theater, often to high standards, but lacking the budgets of professionalWest End orBroadway performances.[16]Astronomy, chemistry, history, linguistics, and the natural sciences are among the fields that have benefited from the activities of amateurs.Gregor Mendel was an amateur scientist who never held a position in his field of study.Radio astronomy was founded byGrote Reber, anamateur radio operator.[17] Radio itself was greatly advanced byGuglielmo Marconi, a young Italian man who started out by tinkering with acoherer and aspark coil as an amateur electrician.[18]Pierre de Fermat was a highly influential mathematician whose primary vocation was law.[19]
In the 2000s and 2010s, the distinction between amateur and professional has become increasingly blurred, especially in areas such as computer programming, music and astronomy. The termamateur professionalism, or pro-am, is used to describe these activities.[20]
