Ph.D., Associate Professor M.P. Bondarenko
Dr.Hab, Professor A.I. Shamardin
Dr.Hab, Professor A.A. Shamardin
Dr.Hab, Professor Yu.A. Zubarev
Dr.Biol, Professor I.N. Solopov
Volgograd State Academy of Physical Culture, Volgograd

Keywords: professional sport, work activities of athlete, injuries in sport, athlete, sports work insurance.

Introduction. Everyone knows that sport can be very traumatic. Wrong move, slippery coating or excessive load in pursuit of a record - any of these can result in an injury. The most important thing that neither professional athletes nor the beginners who just got in the gym have the guarantee against injuries. Probably, this fact affects the decisions of those people for whom the possibility of getting hurt is the main barrier to sports activities. However, the reality is somewhat different. It is obvious, that if a person is not engaged in any active sport, the risk of injury for him is reduced significantly. But does sedentary lifestyle really prevent from being injured? Of course not. In fact, such a way of life will most likely lead to a whole bunch of health problems later.

We are talking about sports injury, that is a sudden impact of various external factors on the human body that violate the structure and anatomical integrity of tissues, bones and organs, altering their physiological functions. In some cases, a single injury can affect the whole life of an athlete, causing problems for many years: pain; pathological changes in tissues, tendons and bones; central nervous system disorders and the loss of vision or hearing.

The purpose of the study was to analyze the need for additional insurance of professional athletes from sports injuries which can lead to early retirement and reduce the ability to do other kinds of work activities. The study also concerns the issues of additional insurance of professional sports activities.

Organization of the study. In accordance with the market laws, the sphere of sports is becoming more and more dependent on the processes of formation and development of specific qualities of athletes who represent its main labour force. The feature of work activity of professional athletes is the need to withstand high physical loads regardless of gender and age [3, p. 353]. And constant influence of such loads causes injuries.

Generally there are 5 reasons for sports injuries:

• The deficiencies in the organization and procedure of competition or training sessions;

• Poor condition of training ground, sports inventory or athletes' equipment;

• Bad weather conditions during competition or training session;

• Gross violation of the rules of medical control;

• A breach of discipline or rules of sports training [7].

We cannot do much with bad weather, however it is possible to significantly reduce other risks by developing effective sports training safety programs for athletes of any level. Sports industry like any other socio-economic system is inert and every unjustified managerial decision results in a waste of time [2]. Therefore, any innovation affecting the methods of reducing injury in professional and amateur sports requires a special approach. And taking into account the rapid growth of the number of fitness centres, sports organizations, and gyms, this problem becomes increasingly urgent. The number of people willing to engage in sports is also rising every year. The analysis of 13 most traumatic sports in Russia is presented in Table 1.

Table 1. The most traumatic sports in Russia

A heavy injury can change athlete's life in an instant, taking away the dreams of victory and cancelling the efforts of many people from his team. Rugby, baseball, golf, cheerleading and rodeo are the most traumatic sports abroad [6]. Note that so-called rugby-7 and golf are included in the program of the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro of 2016.

Training in professional sports is like full-time job. Professional athletes devote to training many hours every day. The closer the competition, the greater the loads and the longer the training. Professional sport implies immense loads, that sometimes are at the limit of physiological capacity of the body. Only those who have been working hard at every training session since childhood have a chance to become a professional athlete and an idol for others. A social aspect of sport is also important. Most of marketing researches related to professional sports are focused on a specific segment of target market [4, p. 88]. But market researches do not reflect the injury rate in sports activities for each sport. While at the competitions, an athlete must be sure that he is technically prepared for the implementation of particular exercise.

Sprains and fractures can lead to a loss of the ability to work and do sports. Such injuries can take up to a week or more to recover. For an amateur this simply means a week of rest, same as in case of sickness of some sort. But for professional athletes who see themselves only in sports any injury is not just a disease, it is a complete loss of working ability. In a critical case it is the end of sports career that brings up the issues of athlete's retirement and economic losses of the sports organization he is currently working in. In such a situation a person has to suffer serious stress and as a result prolonged inability to maintain appropriate condition.

Taking into account the harmfulness of sports work athletes should be able to retire at the age of 35. For now, only ballet artists can do so: the age of retirement for them is 37 (39) years. Most of the athletes retire like other people at the age of 55 for women and 60 for men. Another thing is that many athletes die before reaching this age. Nobody knows what is the lifespan of a professional athlete, because there still haven not been any researches in this matter. So, it looks like if a person retires before reaching the established age it is almost the end for him. Some people are lucky enough to work as a coach, but the amount of vacancies in the field is limited.

At the moment there are few nongovernmental organizations in Russia which offer personal pension plans for the members of professional associations of athletes and persons working in the field of physical culture and sport. The depositor under this scheme is a legal entity – an association which unites athletes of the same sport. Pension qualifications for the participants of these schemes are the termination of sports activity and the experience of such activity on the territory of the Russian Federation. For the people who work in the field of physical culture and sport, pension qualifications are similar to generally established pension qualifications of any kind.

As an example, here some excerpts from the rules of the National Nongovernmental Pension Scheme after the changes of 28 May 2009. A participant can choose whether his "Sports Pension" would be a fixed-period pension (payments within a period of 5 to 20 years) or a life pension at the time of granting. He also has the right to choose the procedure for determining the starting size of the fixed-period pension:

1) based on the amount of generated funds divided by the number of months of payment;

2) based on ½ of the amount of generated funds divided by 36 months followed by the payment of the second ½ of the amount of funds within the remainder of the period of payment [5].

The insurance of athletes against accidents is also related to general qualifications. The order of investigation of any recorded case of injury in the sport is similar to the order of investigation of injury in an industrial plant. Insurance is an essential norm of protection of the labour of professional athletes, stipulated in the labour legislation [3, p. 353]. In accordance with Russian legislation, an employer is obliged to insure the life and health of an athlete and provide medical insurance [8, p. 348.2].

The insurance against accidents is governed by the same regulations, in particular by the Law "On mandatory public and social insurance against accidents at work and occupational diseases that cause disability" and the "Procedure for investigation and recording of accidents at work and occupational diseases". In recent years, more and more athletes are practicing self-initiated additional insurance of their life, spending their earnings, they have earned literally by their own sweat and blood. Sometimes, a sports organization pays for the additional insurance of its most famous athletes.

Conclusion. In this context, the Russian scientific community should intensify the researches on the substantiation of the connection of the development of elite sport and the mass spread of the physical culture movement as a factor of human capital development. Underestimation of the problem of injuries in the athlete's professional activity can lead to a sharp decline in the interest in sport on the part of young people.

Today, the protection of health of athletes is one of the priorities for the organizers of various sports movements, either amateur or professional ones. In accordance with the Rule 2 of the "Olympic Charter" one of the main functions of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is to encourage and support measures to protect health of athletes. For this purpose in accordance with the Rule 21 of the same document the IOC Medical Commission was created. It performs the following duties:

- the application of the World Anti-Doping Code and other IOC rules related to doping control, especially at the Olympic Games;

- the development of directives to protect athletes' health [1].

This shows great importance of the protection of health of the athletes in the organization of international sports movement.

References

1. Bondarenko, M.P. Povyshenie bezopasnosti truda professional'nykh sportsmenov (Improving work safety of professional athletes) / M.P. Bondarenko, T.V. Kuz'minova. Sovremennye problemy nauki i obrazovaniya. – 2014. – № 3 – P. 353 Available at: www.science-education.ru/117-13231. Date of access: 20.09.2014.
2. Bondarenko, M.P. Kompleksny kharakter marketinga v sfere fizicheskoy kul'tury i sporta (Comprehensive marketing in the field of physical culture and sport) / M.P. Bondarenko, Yu.A. Zubarev // Filosofiya sotsial'nykh kommunikatsiy. – 2014. – № 2 (27). – P. 84–90.
3. Vash pensionny broker (Your pension broker) – electronic resource – Available at: http://www.pbroker.ru/news/?id=9135
4. Reyting samykh opasnykh vidov sporta (Most dangerous sports rating). URL: http://basetop.ru/reyting-samyih-opasnyih-vidov-sporta/
5. Travmy v sporte. (Injuries in sport) Available at: http://gotpower.ru/travmy-v-sporte / Date of access: 28.01.2015.
6. Trudovoy kodeks Rossiyskoy Federatsii (The Labor Code of the Russian Federation 30.12.2001 № 197-FZ (ed. 28.12.2013).
7. Bondarenko, M.P. Assessment of the motivation factors for professional sport activity. – Moscow: Middle-East Journal of Scientific Research. – 2013. – # 14 (9). – Р. 1221-1225. – [Electronic resource] – Available at: URL: http://www.idosi.org/mejsr/mejsr14(9)13/16.pdf

Corresponding author: mayya_k@mail.ru