Dr.Hab., Professor F.I. Sobyanin¹                               
Dr.Hab., Professor V.N. Irkhin¹
PhD, Associate Professor Т.В. Nikulina¹
PhD, Associate Professor A.P. Peresypkin^1
1Belgorod State National Research University, Belgorod

Keywords: crisis of values, dialectics of modern Olympic sport, trends.

Background. Progress of the modern sports may be described in terms of the dialectic conflict of its intrinsic contradictions with the process analysis on the axiological and cultural grounds making it possible to realize the origins of its modern negative trends.

Objective of the study was to give an account of the values degrading process in the modern Olympic sports.

Methods and structure of the study. Values mean herein the material and spiritual meanings of special importance for people as satisfying their specific needs [1]. In the axiological and cultural terms, the study subject was considered based on the culture being interpreted as the specific ethically motivated tool and product of a human activity. More than 300 study reports on the subject were analyzed for the purposes of the study. The study was completed at Belgorod State National Research University in 2016-2018.

Study findings and discussion. The modern Olympic movement has made a great progress since its reinstatement in the early 19^th century with multiple new sport disciplines, sport federations and nations joining the movement to contribute to the fast progress in the Olympic records; growing individual and international competitiveness of the movement etc. However, the progress of the Olympic sports may be described in dialectical terms since the productive and inspiring processes in its modern history are associated with the growing negative trends including: biased refereeing service; discriminatory attitudes to individual athletes and national teams; double standards in qualification procedures for the Olympic Games; barring qualifiers from competitions without clearly proven reasons; financial abuse related scandals; doping related problems; dirty politicking in sports; violations of the relevant international laws; violations of the core principles set forth by Pierre de Coubertin and the valid Olympic Charter etc. What are the key specifics of the modern Olympic sports progress in the context of the key sporting values? We believe that the growing negative trends are largely due to dehumanizing processes driven by the sport commercialization and politicization policies; emasculation of the humanistic senses associated with degradation of the Olympic movement; intensified trainings with enormous overloads at sacrifice of the athletes’ health etc. Commonly, the Olympic sport values may be classified into the common human values, international and national ones: see Tables 1-3 hereunder.

Table 1. Common human values of the Olympic movement: degrading trends

It is important to consider values as science-intensive and exclusively ethical cultural phenomena in the context of the key provisions of the valid international laws, Olympic Charter and other tenets of the international covenants and Olympic movement. Of the common human values, we would give a special priority to the three ones that have been particularly degraded lately, including violations of the human rights and freedoms of some contributors to the Olympic movement, must-win agendas at sacrifice of athletes’ health, and competitive successes reached at any cost: see Table 1.

The degradation of the common human values comes as a result of the multiple negative trends in the international Olympic values: see Table 2. The IOC, WADA and some sport federations have demonstrated the increasingly biased and discriminatory attitudes to some participants to the Olympic movement for the last few years including the Russian national team prior to the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Brazil and 2018 Winter Olympic Games. In case of the 2016 Summer Olympic Games, the Kenya, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Belorussia national teams were also subject to discrimination and sanctions.

Table 2. International Olympic values: degrading trends

Doping cases have been on the rise in a geometrical progression lately [2], with some experts even mentioning the high percentages of the doping corruption in one or another sport discipline; albeit WADA is still targeting only a few countries by its anti-doping procedures on a rather biased and discriminatory basis. In the context of the national Olympic values, a special emphasis should be made on the discriminatory attitudes of the IOC to the NOC of Russia and some other countries that are punished by prohibitions to use the national colors, national anthems and flags: see Table 3.

Table 3. National Olympic values: degrading trends

It is clear that the ongoing degradation of the national, international and common human values cannot but result in a regress, disharmony and decline of the Olympic movement, with the negative trend largely driven by the Olympic sport dehumanizing and Olympic culture undermining processes.

Conclusion. In the dialectical terms, it may be stated that the progress of the modern Olympic sports has been increasingly stalled lately by the contradiction between the growing demand for sport records on the one hand and the growing corruption in sports with the records being secured by forbidden methods and medicines at sacrifice of the athletes’ health and even at risks for their lives. The negative trends are associated with detriment to the sporting culture and competitiveness and, hence, trust and interest in the Olympic movement, losses for its global image and the potential decline of the Olympic sports. The Olympic sport degrading trend is driven by the global humanitarian crisis associated with the dirty politicking, sports commercialization, and mismanagement of the global Olympic system. In view of the ongoing global crisis of the Olympic sports, a special priority shall be given to protection of the common human, national and international values of the Olympic sports; and theoretically grounded initiatives shall be taken to give a new impetus to the Olympic sport movement by radical reforms of its global management system.

References

1. Sobyanin F.I., Lotonenko A.V., Kulikov A.F. Tsennosti professionalnogo fizkulturnogo obrazovaniya [Values of professional physical education]. Teoriya i praktika fiz. kultury, 2004, no. 6, P. 2.
2. Stojanović E., Radovanović D. Historical development of analytical methods for anti-doping control. Physical education and sport through the centuries, 2017, vol.4, no 1, pp.15-23.

Corresponding author: sobyanin@bsu.edu.ru

Abstract

The article analyzes the ongoing crisis and negative trends in the modern Olympic sports. Objective of the study was to give an account of the values degrading process in the modern Olympic sports and attitudes to them – to overview the fundamental reasons for the crisis of the modern Olympic sports. The study classifies the Olympic sport values into common human values, international and national Olympic sport values; analyzes the values degrading process in the modern societies; and lists the key negative trends in the Olympic sports including: biased refereeing service; discriminatory attitudes to individual athletes and national teams; doping related problems; financial abuse related scandals; dirty politicking in sports; violations of the relevant international laws; violations of the core principles set forth by Pierre de Coubertin and the valid Olympic Charter. Based on the study data, the core reasons for the values system crisis in the modern Olympic sports are outlined including the global humanitarian crisis; sport politicization and commercialization processes; and the global sport system mismanagement.