Amateur Athletic Union

Amateur Athletic Union, AAU short, is a resident and working in the U.S. organization for the amateur sport.

The AAU was founded in 1888 with the aim of creating common standards in amateur sport and to unify his time existing differences in individual sports. The Association was established on January 21, 1888. Most national championships of the United States took place since then under the leadership of the AAU. The acting soon after the founding of a state- supported association AAU represented the U.S. sports in the various international sports federations and grew up in the years become one of the leading and most influential associations zoom.

The AAU worked closely with the existing at that time United States Olympic Committee to prepare for the U.S. athletes for the Olympic Games. A contribution was made in 1949 the introduction of the AAU Junior Olympic Games, which are held up to the present time every year and where young people 8-16 years of age can participate ( in certain sports also older). For this event many world and Olympic champions were in the past, just in athletics, already out.

In the 1970s, the AAU came thanks to its dominant position in the increasingly critics. The unauthorized action in the enforcement of an outdated regulatory framework, in which, for example, Women to participate in certain running events was banned, or where runners were locked that participated in competitions of sports goods that did not meet the mark of the recruited by the AAU sponsor ultimately led to a disempowerment. The Amateur Sports Act of 1978 organized the United States Olympic Committee and saw the creation of new government-funded independent organizations for the Olympic sports before.

As a result, the AAU lost their influence and importance for international sports and focused on the support and promotion of predominantly young athletes, as well as on the organization of national sporting events.