Dr.Sc.Psych., Professor I.E. Sokolovskaya
Russian State Social University, Moscow

Abstract. Since antiquity, sport has been considered to be a necessary component of normal existence of a civilized person, it is denoted by a concept with a self-explanatory name – physical culture. Sport is an integral part of life of the modern society today, and this is not only a concern for a healthy body, but also presence in such hypostases as politics, business and, if talking about feelings of large human masses, it is spirit. The spirit of excitement, competition, radiated by sports competitions, charging the audience in stands, as if they got this state from a runner who overcomes a distance, a football player who scores a goal, a boxer who knocks his rival out. And what about athlete themselves? What does their strength of mind depend on? What psychological qualities help to form “fortitude”, what is it related to?

Keywords: religious athletes, religious identity of an athlete, “strength of spirit”, fortitude, spiritual training of an athlete

In this article we will consider the worldview towards sports in some world religions, which are distributed on the planet as follows: Christianity - 34.1%, Islam - 20.4%, Hinduism - 14.1%, Buddhists - 12.1%, Judaism - 0.3%, and atheists - 19.1%.
Vassily Didenko, a priest of the Russian Orthodox Church and a master of sports of the USSR in boxing, writes: “Sport is a powerful means of education, it hardens the character. The athlete's state of mind plays a key role for victory. Today, there is understanding that materialistic spiritless life leads to such a dead end which is almost impossible to overcome” [1]. However, not everyone thinks so: some priests believe that watching sports is harmful for a fan, because it brings him in a passionate state, in an uncontrollable excitement.
Sport can have both positive and negative impact on an athlete, the ROC cleric concludes, and at the same time a master of sports of international class in Greco-Roman wrestling, two-time champion of Russia, the owner of the World Cup Sergey Poperechny: “If an athlete really sincerely believes in God, if he has a solid spiritual core, if he is conscientious, he is able to control himself, to regulate difficult moments of his professional career. It seems to me that this is the only way to minimize negative phenomena in sports” [1].
Although, there is an opinion of other ROC priests, for example, Victor Kochmar, the silver prize-winner of the World championship 2010 in powerlifting according to WDFPF (without equipment) believes that “there are no objective contradictions in combination of religion and sport. A person walking a difficult road of a professional athlete makes gigantic efforts. We can call it a kind of sermon. Moreover, it is a working, creative, uplifting life for a human (политкорректность:)), not the one that some young people lead, wasting precious time of their lives on partying or vegging out in front of the computer” [1].
In Islam, religion is closely intertwined with culture. There are years when Ramadan, the ninth month of the Muslim calendar, the sacred month dedicated to prayer and fasting falls on various world-class sports competitions. Muslim athletes periodically face a problem that goes beyond the playing field, forcing them to limit their food and drink consumption after sunrise and before sunset. Some of them often face the dilemma: whether to follow the commandments of the Muslim religion or sacrifice their cultural affiliation and beliefs to avoid the risk of damage to their training and efficiency.
“For me faith is a priority. That's why I never wondered whether or not to practice fasting during training periods. Since I competed at this level, I have always had to train and fast at the same time.” [2]. - Ibtihaj Muhammad, a fencer who made history by being the first American athlete to compete in the Olympic Games, in Rio 2016, wearing the hijab.
However, whether or not to practice fasting in connection with an important competition remains everyone's own choice: there are many cases when athletes prefer to postpone the abstinence period to another time of the year, or appeal to religious authorities that exempt them from Ramadan practice.
It is primarily a question of self-consciousness, which is more related to the perception of one’s own potential and physical limits than to attachment to one’s own culture and faith.
In the Jewish worldview the position with regard to sport is much more complicated. First of all, the very topic of rivalry is denounced here. Orthodox Jews believe that sports competitions affirm the victory of the body over the spirit and thus, not only do not serve the soul, but on the contrary, subordinate the soul to the idol of achieving worldly success.
Correspondingly, this violates the Torah's strictest order _ “save your souls”. Therefore, many sports, especially extreme sports, are prohibited for a believing Jew, however, we are not talking about professionals who make a living from sports.
In addition, when practicing professional sports, it is impossible to observe Sabbath, because competitions are often held on Saturdays.
What else contradicts Judaism in sports, it is immodest behavior. After all, the whole point of sports competitions, especially large ones, is to demonstrate your ability to win, you can remember the stormy joy of a football team which won a match or the face of an athlete who sent his shell farthest ...
However, one sport devoid of the aforementioned signs of body jubilation is adopted by Judaism. This is chess, a sport qualities of which do not contradict the Jewish faith and, accordingly, is very popular in this environment.
The sport in India has existed for centuries and differs from many popular big sports. Cricket is played from birth to deep old age. The first thing they teach in an Indian school after the alphabet is cricket! For Hindus this sport is comparable with religion. Tickets for cricket matches are bought up in the shortest possible time, people just give up their money. Further in importance in India is chess, there are also martial arts, mainly a purely national and very ancient kind of sport, but the most important thing for Hindus, the best exotic and spiritual sport is Yoga..
Buddhists believe that “the body is a scabbard for the blade of the spirit” (Rig Veda). A general principle in Buddhism is that any activity that increases the strength of the defiling qualities in the mind and decreases the strength of the beneficial nutritional qualities should be avoided. Any activity that increases the strength of the good qualities in the mind and decreases the strength of the defiling qualities can be consciously indulged. This principle is applied to determine the correct attitude towards all types of entertainment, from the gross ones to the most sophisticated, including physical education and sports.
We have given examples of adult athletes, but if we touch children, teenagers or youth, when the body is still developing, then religious rites are not in the form of fasting, but in the form of discipline, obedience and other virtues help future athletes to form self-education, criticism, self-control, respect for the enemy and other useful traits.
Self-knowledge leads to self-education - the process of analysis and evaluation of one's own forces, makings and behavioral patterns. An athlete always faces a difficult task of developing a skill for directed psychological self-action. An athlete can influence himself or herself only if he or she knows himself or herself as much as possible: he or she can understand his or her own actions and the reasons for his or her behavior as critically as possible; he or she can evaluate his or her positive and negative aspects concerning not only his or her sports professional activity, but his or her personality in general. In religious faith, this skill is called confession, analysis of one’s own behavior (self-analysis). It helps a sportsman to become competent not only in sports but also in psychology, which includes an independent accounting of the results of all sports activities in order to analyze the determinants of professional and personal successes and defeats.
Many of the necessary personality traits described earlier can be difficult to achieve by an athlete alone. Social psychologists who use psychological techniques of self-regulation can provide significant development assistance. These techniques can significantly improve the sporting spirit of an athlete and raise the level of his or her motivation, self-confidence and, of course, when combined with spiritual practices, raise the level of fortitude.
Conclusion: a healthy mind in a healthy body! And if to say in the key of sports psychology - our health depends on a healthy mind, which can be developed not only through religion, but also through sports: self-regulation, self-analysis, internal discipline. Sport reveals behavior, spiritual position, character, temperament, will, determination, all that makes up the “fortitude” of an athlete!

References:
1. https://www.pravmir.ru/svyashhenniki-sportsmeny/
2. https://www.technogym.ru/newsroom/training-faith-sports-performance/

Information for contacting the author: iesokol@yandex.ru