Translated material
Pervasive social phenomenon
Currently, sport has become a “comprehensive social phenomenon” (M. Moss), since it is capable of influencing all aspects of social life and the everyday life of individuals. Sport is also a system of representations and values that provides us with a certain vision of the world and ways of behavior. Modern culture puts unprecedented pressure on people to be, or at least appear athletic. Sport, a common topic of men's conversations, makes it easier to establish contacts in a cafe, at a party, or at work. During the election campaign at the local level, agreement is most easily achieved when discussing sports issues. The idea was even expressed that “money, even those, are subordinate to sports.”
The diversity of sports reflects social stratification : people with prestigious diplomas engage in those sports that require the acquisition of special equipment or complex mechanisms. In other social groups, collective sports, which involve strictly regulated confrontation, are being replaced by sports of various “adventures”, where the individual is completely free to choose his strategy and the only condition is the voluntary overcoming of all kinds of dangers. Today, sport is not reduced to the single definition that traditional sports federations insist on, which is why the definition of sport has become a subject of social struggle these days. There are debates about what to classify and what not to classify as a sport (why skydiving is worse than rugby, and caving is worse than saber fencing, why motor yachts are inferior to sailing yachts, etc.), as well as about what it means exercise “correctly”.
In addition, the sports system is experiencing “rejuvenation” : in the early 1970s, the world broke with the English tradition, which knew only “hard” collective games (rugby, football, etc.) and standardized athletic competitions. The new system, taking into account its origin, can be called “California”. Its formation occurred simultaneously with the rapid development of youth culture after the events of 1968. The youth of “old” Europe, who chose the “American Dream” for themselves, became interested in surfing, kitesurfing, mountain biking, extreme skiing - those in which the “mass media”, “cybernetic” and “catastrophic” component dominates, in contrast to traditional types, where the “energy” component dominates.
Later, in 1980-1990, the process of mixing two sports cultures, athletic and “adventure” began. Today, the media is showing increased interest in lone adventurers heading to the Pole or rowing across the ocean. All these miracles of courage and dexterity are among the most characteristic manifestations of the heroic culture of “overcoming oneself,” somewhat similar to medieval ordeals; Psychologists and anthropologists compare the passion for such enterprises among young people with drug addiction and substance abuse, and explain it with a latent desire to “burn out young.”
Sport, with its focus on records, opens up opportunities for countless (not to say thoughtless) technological and scientific experiments . The above applies primarily to sports equipment and the material environment necessary for competitions. However, the stakes in this game are growing so quickly that the effects of scientific and technological progress are also beginning to extend to the human body. Both athletic and adventure sports have become laboratories of sorts, where the endless expansion of the body's capabilities is demonstrated before the eyes of the whole world. Health itself is now understood differently; Nowadays no one talks about the need to treat your body with respect and caution and in no case disturb the “balance” of the body. Health today is what allows you to lead a stressful life, which involves accidental or intentional disruption of this balance; A person who is able to take risks and overcome dangers is considered healthy. And since these processes affect not only people directly associated with sports, but also the general public, they can threaten our culture with very alarming consequences. Already now, adults are waging a fierce struggle against the signs of aging - they use weight loss products and hormonal drugs, and put themselves in the hands of massage therapists and plastic surgeons. Playing sports is part of this fight. Sport turns out to be a litmus test that allows us to notice the repressed phantasm that disturbs the consciousness of modern man. The call for a “sports lifestyle”, concern for weight loss and the widest spread of the sports style are perhaps associated with the myth of “eternal youth”, behind which, as Roland Barthes believed, lies the dream of immortality.
Sport - an overdetermined concept, a bearer of many meanings - turns out to be a grandiose supplier of myths. It allows you to look at the split social world from different angles, showing both the brilliant, shining life of the winners and the hidden life of outcasts and losers. The main paradox of sport is that these days, when its audience has expanded significantly, the values that once underlay it have undergone great changes. His amazing ability to generate vivid images and glorify reality meets the need of modern society, experiencing an information revolution, for symbolic products.