Elite Sports

The growth of nineteenth-century American industry created a new economic elite, based in the nation’s largest cities. Like their British predecessors, wealthy American families began to use exclusive sports and recreation to cement ties with each other and to set themselves apart from less conspicuously successful citizens. They founded athletic clubs such as the New York Yacht Club and the Germantown Cricket Club and lavished attention on thoroughbred horse racing, yachting, polo, track and field, cricket, tennis, and golf – games that required large amounts of free time, costly facilities, and elaborate equipment. They also championed the principle of amateurism, which claimed to keep sport “pure” but which conveniently limited serious pursuit of elite sports to those with ample time and money.