<P> Later on, the nations of the Communist bloc entered teams of Olympians who were all nominally students, soldiers, or working in a profession, but many of whom were in reality paid by the state to train on a full - time basis . </P> <P> Near the end of the 1960s, the Canadian 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 the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Avery Brundage, president of the IOC from 1952 to 1972, was opposed to the idea of amateur and professional players competing together . At the IIHF Congress in 1969, the IIHF decided to allow Canada to use nine non-NHL professional hockey players at the 1970 World Championships in Montreal and Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada . The decision was reversed in January 1970 after Brundage said that ice hockey's status as an Olympic sport would be in jeopardy if the change was made . In response, Canada withdrew from all international ice hockey competitions and officials stated that they would not return until "open competition" was instituted . 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 . </P> <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>

When did the olympics first allow professional athletes