$50K Olympic track prize the latest in a long, conflicted relationship between athletes and money

By EDDIE PELLS
AP National Writer

Since the day they were founded, the Olympics have had a confusing relationship with money. The games were supposed to celebrate sport for sport’s sake. But the price athletes paid to be any good was far too high, and it took virtually no time for the concept of amateurism that the Olympics rested on to be viewed as unrealistic, if not an all-out ruse. This week’s news that track’s international federation will pay $50,000 to gold-medal winners at the Paris Games was the latest step in a century’s worth of unraveling the myth of amateurism at the Olympics. The Associated Press looks at some key points along the way.