According to the first regulation of 1894, only amateurs, e.g. not professionals athletes, were accepted to the Olympic Games. This statement illustrates one of the main issues of 19th century, the debate between amateurism and professionalism. The early amateur movement was not so much a movement against athletic profit as against a social class, namely, the working class - a movement to keep it out of competition.
Even before 1896, in 1870, during the Zappian Olympic Games, Philippos Ioannou, a classical scholar and professor, was one of the judges at the games. He attacked the games on amateur grounds: the new Olympics were a travesty, he said, because "some working men had competed", men "scarcely prized away from their wage-earner". The winner of the 400 m. race was a butcher; Troungas, victor in the pole climb, was a stone-cutter; Kardamylakes, an Olympic champion wrestler, was an ordinary manual worker. So men from the working class had competed in the 1870's Olympic Games. Ioannou proposed that only upper-class youths should be allowed to compete in the next Olympiad. In the next Olympic Games, in 1875, only men of the "cultured class" were allowed to compete, e.g. students of high schools and universities.
In order to put the athletes under control, athletic societies were founded. Usually, the members of the Societies were distinctive persons of the Hellenic society such as lawyers, politicians, professors, etc. After the foundation of Athletic Societies, it became obligatory for the athletes to be members of the Societies.
First Greek Athletic Society was the Panhellenic Gymnastic Society. It was founded in 1891 by distinctive persons of the Athenian society. Ioannis Fokianos was the first President. As soon as it was founded, it organized athletic games in the Public Gymnasium in Athens. This event included track competitions, wrestling, weight-lifting and gymnastics. It was a very important event for the Athenian society of the time and even the royal family attended.
In 1894, the Panhellenic Society participated in the International Athletic Congress in Paris. His representative was Vikelas, the man who contributed much to the organization of the First Olympics. During the Olympic Games of 1896, ten members of the Panhellenic nominated were Olympic winners.