INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC ACADEMY 7th JOINT - IOA

FAIR PLAY AND SLOVENIAN OLYMPIC ATHLETES
(SYDNEY 2000)
1. INTRODUCTION
Ms Maja SMRDU (SLO)
Recently, increasing attention has been given to fair play and ethic
in sport, probably because in the process of developing its muscles
sport is losing its soul and people involved in it are losing their
humanity. This might also be the reason why stories of success are
more and more accompanied by stories of failure and exploitation. In
Slovenia, an extensive research about this topic has not yet been
made, therefore, we decided to find out what the situation is
concerning fair play in Slovenian elite sport. While preparing the
research, we were not able to find any of the definitions for fair play
completely suitable. By considering many studies and definitions such
as the Declaration of Fair play (stated by ICSSPE in cooperation with
IOC and the support of UNESCO), Declaration of the CIFP, an
analysis of fair play awards (done by Dabrowski) and summary
studies by Morgan (2001), we tried to find out the most important
features of fair play.
From 1974, the document about Fair play characterizes it as a
constant and unambiguous resignation from win at any cost, as a
behaviour, proceeding from individual moral needs. It results from
intrinsic belief that a win because of cheating, referee's mistake or
circumstances that would give an unfair advantage, is not a real win.
The Declaration of the CIFP, which represents the basis for the
annual reward named “Pierre de Coubertin”, comprehends fair play
from different perspectives which may be divided into two basic
categories: individual and structural. The first one mostly involves
personal responsibility of participants and their respect for:
- contact between competitors, psychologically as well as
physically,
- care for personal health and for the health of others,
- efforts to achieve success and at the highest possible standards
of performance,
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