Sport and Olympic Idealism

Abstract

The major obejctive of this study is to determine the relationship of the sport an athlete competes in, to the athlete's level of expressed Olympic Idealism. Stated in the Null form, the hypothesis to be tested is: There is no relationship between an athlete's sport and his expression of Olympic Idealism attitudes.

The tenets of Olympic Idealism, as espoused by the International Olympic Com mittee (hereafter IOC), should be familiar to anyone with even a remote interest in sport. Bucher's concise outline of the major components of Olympic Idealism shall be used in this analysis:

1. Sport should be practiced for its own sake, not for any material gain.

2. The competition should be exclusively for individuals; nationalism has no place in the Games.

3. The important thing is not winning but taking part. (Bucher, 1968).

The Olympic creed has survived eighty years without any basic change. This is a remarkable accomplishment considering the volatile course of history during that time. Perhaps as astonishing as that record of constancy is the almost total absence of empirical data assessing the relevance of the creed to Olympic athletes.

Czula, et al. (1976), in the only published study found on the subject, reported that there was not a universal acceptance of the Olympic Idealism creed in a sample of United States Olympic athletes. Using three attitude scales measuring Bucher's above listed aspects of Olympism, Czula et al, found that 38%, 42% and 26% respectively, of the athletes sampled prior to the 1960 Games disagreed with the IOC views on Idealism.