Amateur Athletic Union

Amateur Athletic Union

Abbreviation	AAU
Formation	January 21, 1888; 136 years ago (1888-01-21)
Founder	James E. Sullivan
Founded at	New York Athletic Club
Type	Amateur Sports Organization
Headquarters	Lake Buena Vista, Florida, US
Membership	700,000 athletes and coaches nationwide
President/CEO	J.B. Mirza
Website	aausports.org

The Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) is an amateur sports organization based in the United States.^[1] A multi-sport organization, the AAU is dedicated exclusively to the promotion and development of amateur sports and physical fitness programs.^[2] It has more than 700,000 members nationwide, including more than 100,000 volunteers.^[3] The philosophy of the AAU is "Sports for All, Forever."

The AAU was founded on January 21, 1888, by James E. Sullivan and William Buckingham Curtis with the goal of creating common standards in amateur sport.^[4] Since then, most national championships for youth athletes in the United States have taken place under AAU leadership. From its founding as a publicly supported organization, the AAU has represented U.S. sports within the various international sports federations. In the late 1800s to the early 1900s, Spalding Athletic Library of the Spaulding Company published the Official Rules of the AAU.

The AAU formerly worked closely with what is now today the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee to prepare U.S. athletes for both the Summer and Winter Olympic Games, helping in the qualification of athletes to form the national team. As part of this, the AAU Junior Olympic Games were introduced in 1949, with athletes aged 8 to 16 years, or older in certain sports, being able to participate. Many future World and Olympic champions have appeared in these events, which are still held every year.

In the 1970s, the AAU received growing criticism. Many claimed that its regulatory framework was outdated. Women were banned from participating in certain competitions and some runners were locked out. The sporting goods industry also criticized the AAU for stifling innovation by forcing outdated or overreaching standards on their goods and game equipment. During this time, the Olympic Sports Act of 1978 organized the then United States Olympic Committee and saw the re-establishment of independent associations for the Olympic sports, referred to as national governing bodies. The rise of professionalism in all sports in the latter half of the 20th century also hurt the AAU's viability. As a result, the AAU lost its influence and importance in international sports, and focused on the support and promotion of predominantly youthful athletes, as well as on the organization of national sports events.