<P> Before the 1984 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, the United 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 . 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 the World Hockey Association--were allowed to play . Canadian hockey official Alan Eagleson stated that the rule was only applied to the NHL and that professionally contracted players in European leagues were still considered amateurs . Murray Costello of the CAHA suggested that a Canadian withdrawal was possible . In 1986, the IOC voted to allow all athletes to compete in Olympic Games starting in 1988, but let the individual sport federations decide if they wanted to allow professionals . </P> <P> After the 1972 retirement of IOC President Avery Brundage, the Olympic amateurism rules were steadily relaxed, amounting only to technicalities and lip service, until being completely abandoned in the 1990s (In the United States, the Amateur 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 the Amateur Athletic Union as a wholesale sports governing body at the Olympic level). </P> <P> 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 due to the fact that professional wrestling is largely staged with pre-determined outcomes . Starting from the 2016 Summer Olympics, professionals were allowed to compete in boxing, though amateur fight rules are still used for the tournament . </P> <Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This section needs expansion . You can help by adding to it . (November 2010) </Td> </Tr> </Table>

Can professional athletes play in the winter olympics