The article critically examines the “pyramid” metaphor for mass-participation sports. It focuses on the heterogeneity of intra-group structure and motives among adult amateurs participating in open races in running, triathlon, etc. The study is based on comparative participant observation at Russian and European mass-sports events and semi-formalized interviews. We describe the lifestyle and motives of non-elite athletes. Mostly they participate “for fit, for fun, for challenge, for socialization”, defined as key motives. Participation in races is essential for healthy lifestyle. However, the motive “for health” is peripheral. We noted a latent motive of “to win, to be ahead of others”. It reflects the very nature of sports, but creates a “loser's problem” subverting participation. We show how skill-level and a balance between key and latent motives constitute three strata among non-elite athletes. We define these strata as “Ordinary”, “Adequate” and “Crazy” and demonstrate how the motivation difference produces hidden controversies among them. Our theoretical interpretation is based on Norbert Elias’s concept of civilizing process and Konrad Lorenz’s comparative anthropology. We outline two normative sports models. For the Expressive model, the key motives “fit, fun, challenge, socialization” are socially approved, but for the Traditional-competitive or Top-achievements model, only the latent motive of “to win” looks legitimate. We believe that mass-participation sports emerged due to modern recognition of the Expressive model as a new social norm, while the Competitive model hinders its development. Rejecting the “pyramid” metaphor in sports, we propose an “iceberg” metaphor wherein these models coexist through different social roles.
In the 1940s–1960s, the USSR made an ideological turn from leftist sports politics to the struggle for Olympic achievements. How has this U-turn affected the social order in Soviet sport and its artistic repre-sentation? The article offers a systematic review of Soviet sport fiction films. The study of sport and fit-ness imagination is conducted through a correlation between artistic performance and social context. Fo-cusing on the 1950s–1980s, we found three different types of representation: № 1 is the creating of a hero (for an elite athlete). This is the lion’s share of all sport movies where the “Myth of a Hero” in Olympic sport was constructed. In praising elite sport, modern Russian movies continue the well-known Soviet tradition; № 2 is the laughing at clowns (for mass sportsmen). These are mostly episodes in feature films on themes, where mass sport (i.e., non-elite, grassroots, recreational, fitness, and ordinary) is mentioned. Surprisingly, this sport is presented in a comic sense (except hiking and mountaineering); №3 is sport reality. This type comprises the tiniest selection of movies where art reflects the real situation inside the Soviet sport industry. Elite athletes are presented here as antiheroes with social adaptation problems; ad-ditionally, such issues as shamateurism are severely criticized. The conclusions are following: since the 1970s, sport films ceased to function as propaganda of fitness and recreational sport. On the contrary, elite sport (as an art branch), its representations in official arts and media jointly constructed the great “evan-gelical myth” about itself, which became the part of public consciousness. However, this myth had little to do with a new reality. Elite sport’s positive representation acted only as a propagandist tool that created a fictional social world. The existing social order’s irrationality was critically reflected only by the comedy genre.
This essay examines the social portrait of contemporary iron men and women, i.e., non-elite amateur triathletes. It is questioned the widespread belief in their unique exceptionality as socially successful people and natural-born endurance athletes. It is shown that the commodification of endurance sports (running, cycling, cross-country skiing, and triathlon) led to the division of communities into two generations — the displacing original and the emerging contemporary. The original generation was characterized by a more democratic social composition and more sustained engagement. The contemporary generation prefers symbolic recognition and a shorter commitment to sports. This opens up discussions about enduring and ephemeral matters in sports.
The factual diarchy in triathlon, as well as the emphasis of its economic model on mass participationall this is atypical for Olympic sports. On top of non-profit International Triathlon Union (ITU), there is also a strong economic competitor -commercial World Triathlon Corporation (WTC) owning the Ironman brand with its own independent World Championships. The reasons for this state are poorly investigated. Analysis of archival documents, memoirs, press publications, as well as interviews with the founders have allowed us to reconstruct the main stages of the socio-economic history of triathlon. The focus is on how the sports governing bodies were created in the 1980s. We also describe the social origins of the first Iron Man race and the birth of triathlon, the rivalry between Hawaii and Nice championships, and the ITU conflicts with WTC in 1990s-2000s. We argue that these conflicts are the continuation of tensions between European representatives and "American alliance" back in 1980s during the creation of the governing body. Their underlying reason is the difference in European and American models of sports. We dispute the opinion about "Russian threat", which caused the collapse of the Union Internationale de Pentathlon Moderne, Biathlon et Triathlon (UIPMBT), plus views on the ITU development as a success story. We show that the causes of UIPMBT collapse and the earlier Triathlon Federation International collapse were due to the personal ambitions of ITU first president Les McDonald, its questionable political technique (so-called "active democracy") and the "Alliance's" economic interests. But in the end, McDonald's backstage victories became Pyrrhic for ITU.
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