Originally Posted by CDSmith

I think the change for certain sports started with hockey in the winter Olympics in the mid-80's. The Russians were sending their star russian league players and saying that because they are "unpaid" they qualify. So the best junior players from Can and US were basically going up against NHL-level players every time, and we got fed up with it... so the rule was changed.

Then later when basketball was included in the summer games they for some reason decided to keep the same rules as for hockey and allow every country to send their best players, not just amateurs. Funny they don't do it for baseball though, I doubt we'll ever see a MLB "dream team" anytime soon at the Olympics.

I guess in the end the world wants to see the world's best compete, and in sports like hockey and basketball you'll never see the worlds best unless you allow the pros to partake.

Most Olympic events don't even have any kind of pro level, for those athletes the Olymics ARE their one and only world series or superbowl, so those sports will always be amateur.