Professionals wernt aloud in the olympics?.....Take a look at hockey there bud, those were NHL players back in the 88 games, now I cant say for before the 88 games, but 22 years isnt that recent...
And your right, he gets endorcments because he "is generally considered the greatest American alpine skier of all time"-quoted directly from wikipedia. when you get that title, kinda means your pro, and when you have that status, and by that point, your name is really all sponsors want, and they dont care so much about results. theres a lot of different aspects to being a profesional.