SPORTS

Amateur sports are sports in which participants engage largely or entirely without remuneration. The distinction is made between amateur sporting participants and professionalsporting participants, who are financially remunerated for the time they spend playing or training. In the majority of sports which feature professional players, the professionals will participate at a higher standard of play than amateur competitors. However, the majority of wordwide sporting participants are amateurs. Sporting amateurism was a zealously guarded ideal in the 19th century, especially among the upper classes, but faced steady erosion throughout the 20th century with the continuing growth of pro sports and monetisation of amateur and collegiate sports, and is now strictly held as an ideal by fewer and fewer organisations governing sports, even as they maintain the word "amateur" in their titles.