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values intertwined with sport competition are ‘intrinsic values of sport’24, as discussed earlier; whilst the values describing the human holistic development can be termed ‘humanistic values’. However, some important values that we find in Olympic sport have a wider span and they extend over the two groups. For example, fair play is a value encompassing different values and, as such, it includes both values inherent in sport training and competition (e.g. rule-following) as well as values with a potential for sport training and competition that are promoted within Olympism (e.g. social responsibility). Also, the inclusion of some value into one of the groups depends on its definition. For example, excellence may be a competition value if understood as excellence in certain athletic skills, or a humanistic value if understood as the overall excellence of the human being. Also, it depends on the given sport discipline, whether the values are to be classified as intrinsic to sport or added to sport. For example, in individual sports athletes do not have to co-operate, and so co-operation is not ‘intrinsic’ in this kind of sport practice, whereas in team sports, co-operation is an intrinsic value. So, if we wish to teach co-operation as a value within individual sports, it is important to add it to the sport practice in some way. The intrinsic values of sport are generated by mere participation in competitive sport, including the struggle of two sides (individuals or teams) with the aim of victory over the opponent. This struggle to win needs to be taken seriously, because that is the basis of sport competition, i.e. a contest with a view to establishing a winner. The task of athletes in a particular sport is then to try hard to beat the opponent, e.g. to score goals, to run or swim as fast as possible to outperform the opponent. In addition to mere participation in sport competition, Olympism proposes exemplary and ethical human competition, which proposes further values. They enable the athlete to train and compete in sport in a humane way. Among these values belong social responsibility, peace, harmony, internationalism, universalism, etc. While these values are generally considered as important for human society, they may also have various functions within sport. The problem with these values is that they are more difficult to incorporate within sport training and competition, because while they may potentially be part of the practice, they need not be included in it. Indeed, as a matter of fact, they are not usually included, I think because it is 24 Elsewhere, in Martínková (2012b), I call these ‘competition values’.
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believed that they are counterproductive to the sport performance. So, if they are to become an accepted part of sport, they will need some extra attention and efforts at implementation. Humanistic values have various functions within Olympism, they modify the sport competition, while retaining its full extent. For example: • They widen the potential of intrinsic values of sport. Nikolaos Nissiotis gives an example of this: “In practising competitive sports, athletes are challenged to use their power and aggressiveness in the most intense way, but they are obliged to use their force to victory as an example of peaceful emulation and for the sake of sharing in the supreme glory of becoming an example of peaceful struggle ...” (1985, 108). This can be captured as a motto: “Try as hard as you can, but do not forget to be human!” • They moderate possible negative effects of competition. For example, development of the values of respect for opponents and peaceful internationalization helps to avoid possible negative effects of rivalry, such as violence, while athletes still may use aggressive (but non-violent) strategies that fit within the rules. The value of peaceful internationalism, which is often promoted by Olympism (e.g. Georgiadis and Syrigos, 2009) needs to be implemented into sport with the help of various social and political strategies. For example, the general regulations drawn up in 1894 dealt with these issues in the way that they reserved “the right of the organizing committees to reject any candidate whose character or previous record of conduct might reflect injuriously upon the dignity of the institution” (Coubertin, 2000j, 546). • They prevent a certain one-sidedness of competition. For example, the value of harmony helps to direct the athletes’ attention towards full personal development, not just becoming better in the one task that the athlete competes in – this does not necessarily diminish the excellence in the tested skill – through the balance of the whole human being, the athlete can become better. Thus it is important to realize that the humanistic values are not there to replace the intrinsic values of sport. This is not possible since, within the set of humanistic values themselves, there is no competition. The role of these values is to remind athletes of the wider context of competition in order to make the competition humane, and to avoid vulgar competition. Omitting one or other of these two kinds of values leads to a misunderstanding of what Olympism is: either in terms of pure sport competition, or just some kind of humanism without sport participation.
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Both of these sets of values need to be recognized and kept together. Keeping them both means we omit neither of these two aspects of Olympism – we do not reduce it, but keep its richness together: both sport competition and an ethical and full life. Coubertin himself recognized this problem of excessive competition that was oriented on the athlete’s own profit and that did not respect Olympic values, and to draw our attention to it, he highlighted a difference between two kinds of competition – ‘excessive competition’ and ‘moderate competition’. By excessive competition, Coubertin (e.g. 2000j, 543) means intense, unbridled competition that is aimed at material gain, self-promotion and competition at all costs, which is associated with World Championships. World Championship sport is characterized as athletics for the sake of winning something, which includes intense competition and which is in line with the secular way of life that is oriented towards performance for finance, fame, self-promotion, self-assertion, etc. On the other hand, moderate competition is an example of truly Olympic sport, with its pinnacle, the Olympic Games. It is understood by Coubertin as set amidst humanistic, social and moral values and regulated or modified by them. Even though Coubertin was very much aware of these problems of competition, he nevertheless insisted on advocating competition as a necessary means within Olympism: “… can we dispense with all forms of competition? In general, should we hope that human beings will one day be so sensible, so careful of their self-interest, health, proper mental balance, and physical condition that they will have no further need for a competitive spirit? No, not at all! That would be a utopia!” (Coubertin, 2000g, 161)
The need for competition, according to Coubertin, originates from the necessity to attract young people to become engaged in sports and to motivate them to educate themselves through sport practice. In this regard, Coubertin, whose work in the field of sport and Physical Education heavily influenced the character of modern sport, claimed: “It is absolutely essential for us to measure ourselves against someone or something else. If we have no rivals at our heels, at the very least we should keep a record in front of us, to urge us forward.” (Coubertin, 2000g, 162)
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