L.I. Lubysheva, professor, Dr.Hab.
Russian State University of Physical Culture, Sport, Youth and Tourism (SCOLIPC), Moscow

Key words: culture, ideas of Olympism, sport, commercialization, professionalization.

According to many scientists, modern sport is more frequently seen as a unique cultural phenomenon that can affect the social and individual development (V.K. Balsevich, 2000, V.I. Stolyarov, 2013).

The culturological resource of sport is based on historic Olympic traditions. As noted by prominent philosopher N.N. Vizitey, sport is a certain unity of collaboration and competition. While accepting and upholding the fair play principle, athletes are collaborating to preserve the social space in which everyone can fully satisfy the urge for competition. Since the days of ancient Greece, the winner in sport is the most real one, most true winner. In Greece - it wasn't just the best athlete, but also the best person. With his victory he strengthened what was the basis of community life - he consolidated its solidarity and therefore he was accepted by the community and by the gods as a hero [1].

However, modern Olympic Games, in contrast to the antique ones, aren't connected with religion. Modern Olympian is primarily a man having unique motor skills, fortitude, sports talent and the support from a team of professional experts. Since the 90s of the last century, sport has been radically changing its place in modern culture and acquired new socio-cultural significance. At the same time, the theoretical understanding of sport today is far behind the sports practical experience. It is expressed in the fact that the ideas of sport, formed in the middle of the XX century under the influence of the concepts of Olympism of Pierre de Coubertin, collide with the realities of the modern sports movement.

Thinking of the place of sport in culture, we can now talk about the phenomenon of sports culture. And modern concept of Olympism considerably enriches its content.

Olympism that constitutes the spiritual foundation of the sports movement is still recognized as a socio-cultural education, based on the humanistic values of goodwill of people, their aspiration for peace, cooperation and mutual understanding. The humanistic nature determines its essential content - serving man, individual, society [4].

The purpose of the study was to provide the scientific foundation of the influence of the concept of Olympism on the development of the theory of sports culture.

Results and discussion. The introduction of sport into modern culture was difficult. The Olympic Games were revived in the spirit of general ideas of Renaissance i.e. as an attempt to “revive” the Olympic values of Ancient Greece. Pierre de Coubertin considered Olympism not just as a world sports movement, but as a meaning of new humanistic philosophy. He believed in great educational and pedagogical power of sport, assuming that spiritual and moral development of new generation is impossible without the harmonious development, in which sports education is the most important component.

Up to this day the fundamental principles of the Olympic Charter say: “1. Olympism is a philosophy of life, which elevates the qualities of the body, will and mind, and combines them in a balanced whole. Olympism, that unites sport with culture and education, seeks to create a way of life based on finding the joy in effort, the educational value of good example and respect for universal fundamental ethical principles. 2. The goal of Olympism is to make sport promote harmonious development of people in order to facilitate the creation of a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity” [3].

The Coubertin's main idea, associated with the revival of Olympic Games, was to use sport consistently, systematically and effectively for solving educational problems, in other words, to use sport for the “renewal of humanity through education”. We can say that the philosophy of Olympism is based on the European common educational principle, which says that “proper” education can transform social reality.

The cultural potential of modern sport results from the close relationship with the concept of Olympism and sport pedagogics of P. de Coubertin. The standards, ideals and behavior patterns inherent in Olympism become the criteria of a harmoniously developed personality of an athlete.

Sports culture contains a specific result of human activity and the ways of converting the physical and spiritual potential of a person through mastering of values of training and competitive activities, aimed at high achievement in sport. The structure of values of personal sports culture includes health, harmonious development, viability and vitality. Self-development and self-actualization of an athlete generate sports pleasure and enjoyment of the process and the result of sports activity. This unity of spiritual and physical development of an individual helps understand the essence of sports culture and distinguish it from general culture [2].

Personal sports culture is formed primarily during training and competitive activities. Olympic sport is the most essential part of modern sport, determining the main course of its development, and the system of achievement of high results is based on it.

The system of principles that forms the sports culture of particular athlete known as “Fair play” is at the heart of Olympic sport. The conditions required for the formation of the value attitude to sport are knowledge and skills that make up the Olympic education of an athlete. The interest in Olympic sport, social phenomena in the field of sport and adequate goals of Olympism define the awareness of real goals and tasks of sports training and the behavior in society for those who are involved in sport. Thanks to Olympic education athletes are able not only to navigate in various aspects and functions of Olympic sport, but also to justify and understand the cultural meaning of modern sport in general. Thus, the system of Olympic education is closely related to sports education.

We are talking about the development of a new kind of education by the means of sport, competition, training loads and sports training, which forms the athlete's personality, his ability to achieve high results and to be a person in the highest sense of the word.

Sports education is considered as the ways of interaction between a coach and an athlete, providing the acquisition of knowledge and skills, the development of necessary qualities and abilities and the formation of worldview. The very nature of sport has a powerful influence on the individual. The educational value of sport is great too. Suffice it to recall what has already become a “commonplace” expression, that sport for young people is a “school of character, courage and will”.

Sport builds character and teaches to overcome difficulties, to resist “the blows of fate”. It forms an identity, it forces to fight the weaknesses and overcome oneself. With the help of sport a person learns to control emotions, to understand beauty. The person also begins to comprehend the basics of legal culture, via learning the rules of “fair play”. Sport is a powerful factor of socialization and the manifestation of social activity. It helps people gain the experience of interpersonal communication through the process of building relationships and interactions with other athletes, with a coach and sports referees. It is sport what can transform a person into a true leader and organizer, because it largely simulates life situations.

Sports education also provides the process of cognition and solves the educational problems. So, sport is a special type of creative search activity. It is known: in order to achieve high results, an athlete should know a lot, from the understanding of human being as a sociobiological individual to the rules of organization of training process. The idea of an athlete as a person who needs nothing but strength, agility and endurance is a thing of the past. Only a highly educated individual familiar with sports culture is able to win medals and real victories.

Sports competition is seen as an incentive to mobilize skills and use them in full measure. And the aspiration of competitors to demonstrate their abilities in a noble competition is an impulse for the achievement of perfection.

This approach puts in the forefront the moral aspect of participation in a sports competition. According to Coubertin, an athlete shouldn't seek to win at any cost. As Olympism implies the preference should be given to honest and noble acts in a sports competition and the most important thing is not a specific result, expressed in measurable physical quantities (points, goals, seconds, and so on), but the courage displayed during the battle for victory, the fighting spirit which encourages people to overcome themselves, their weaknesses and shortcomings. Only moral behavior in sport will help it carry its educational function.

Nevertheless, today Olympism, considering its content, is not consistent with the ideals with which it began its revival. A significant breakaway of Coubertin's concept of Olympism occurred in the modern Olympic movement in the 80-ies of the last century when the Olympics Games were under the threat of marginalization. Lack of money and the weakening of spectators' interest in amateur sports raised the question of revising the initial concepts. Back then president of the IOC Juan Antonio Samaranch took the liberty of abandoning the principle of amateurism and allowing business in the Olympic movement.

This decision caused qualitative changes in sport. Commercialization introduced a new element in sports competitions. They became a part of show business, making sport to consider the commercial interests. Sports competitions should be entertaining; attract a large number of fans, provide high level of professional skills and form their sports aesthetics. Now it is not the personal harmonious development what motivate to do sports, as suggested by Coubertin, but the strict rules of gain and profitability dictate an athlete and manager how to organize sports activity. Moreover, sport has become a highly paid profession and therefore there is an interest in improving the performance of athletes and ensuring consistent high results throughout a sports season.

Today the structure of motivation to win a major sports event includes not so much a desire to obtain the moral satisfaction from victory and prove one's superiority over opponents, as the desire for higher social status, desire to become famous and wealthy and make a successful career.

Olympic sport has been steadily evolving towards professionalization, relying on the values of success, career and money more openly. This way the value orientations have also changed towards the consumerism and pragmatism. While increasing the performance of athletes, professionalization, however, results in opposing the Olympic sport to other varieties of sports activity, separating it further and further from mass sport.

Commercialization of the Olympic movement is also bad for its further development. Because, it isn't often the interests of athletes and optimal conditions for the achievement of sports records what determine the time and framework of a competition, but the interests of television broadcasters and advertisers.

The antihumanistic traditions, such as: tough competition, hostility, doping and frauds began to develop in Olympic sport. More and more people call Olympic Games a commercial project, the main purpose of which is to make a profit. And the scenario of the modern Olympic Games can be compared to that of the large-scale shows.

All of these trends radically contradict the ideals of Olympism, so it can be assumed that if the negative trends will become stronger, the public opinion will ignore the Olympic Games and reject the “new ideals” of Olympism.

In this regard, there is a clear pattern of the influence of the negative aspects of Olympic sport on shaping the personality of a modern athlete: the higher the commercial component of victory, the greater the desire of an athlete to win at all costs, violating the sports ethics and the rules of competition. But in the case of dishonorable behavior, which allows the conscious violation of ethical norms and rules, the athlete cannot actualize himself to the utmost, comes off of the path of personal enhancement and sport is deprived of its original inherent meaning.

Sport is now beyond the boundaries of the Olympic concept and keeps evolving under the new socio-historical conditions, acquiring new features and social functions.

It is known that culture is a generator of meanings of social life. In this context, sport as a cultural phenomenon in the modern society serves as a popular cultural ideal and behavioral pattern.

Conclusion. When forming the theory of sports culture one is to focus not only on Olympic traditions, but also take into account the realities of the modern Olympic movement. The commercialization of the Olympic movement assisted in expanding the influence of sport on different aspects of social life - politics, economics, media, science, but significantly lowered the humanistic potential of personal enhancement of an athlete. It is therefore important to conduct the researches for new ways of development of the Olympic traditions, which consider the socio-cultural transformations of modern sport.

References

1. Vizitey, N.N. Olympic ideas and realities of modern world / N.N. Vizitey, V.G. Manolaki // Teoriya i praktika fizicheskoy kultury. – 2011. – № 1. – P. 43–47. (In Russian)
2. Lubysheva, L.I. Cultural transformations in modern sport in the aspect of sociological analysis / L.I. Lubysheva // Teoriya i praktika fizicheskoy kultury. –2013. – № 6. – P. 10–13. (In Russian)
3. Olympic Charter. MOC. – Moscow, 1990. – 87 P. (In Russian)
4. Stolyarov, V.I. The Olympic concept of Pierre de Coubertin and the Present / V.I. Stolyarov //Olympic bulletin: collected researches / RSUPCST, Centr. Olymp. acad. – Moscow, 2005. – № 7. – P. 84–94. (In Russian)

Corresponding author: fizkult@teoriya.ru