INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC ACADEMY 7th JOINT - IOA

Regarding fair play both groups differ in sportsmanship and
correctness, which are more valued in individual sports. When
speaking of the first factor we should emphasize the substantial
standard deviation within team sports. This is important because
collective group represents a small sample (only 10 sportsmen). Due
to the difference in sportsmanship, this is still the highest valued
factor, along with respect for competitors and rules, while the 'win at
all costs' and irresponsibility are the lowest valued factors in both
groups. Sportsmen of individual disciplines are more correct, while
sportsmen in team sports consider being placed into a classification is
of a higher importance than a game itself, and on average they like
much less to play with women than athletes from individual sports.
Through individual items we see that, especially a correct way of
playing and an importance of game in comparison to classification,
are those elements, which essentially differ between elite team and
elite individual sportsmen. Inside sportsmanship we can quickly
observe friendlier, correct relationship to competitors of athletes of
individual disciplines than of those from collective ones. The first
ones consider their competitors as respectful sportsmen and not as
enemies. Consequently, they are more prepared to lend their own
equipment to a competitor to enable his performance and they also
congratulate him for good performance regardless of their own
classification (especially if they know that he has been training very
hard to gain a good result). Individual athletes also know how to
sympathize with a competitor who lost and they are prepared to offer
him help and support in these difficult moments. On the other hand,
team sportsmen significantly more often said that they would hurt
another competitor if their trainer told them to. They also share an
opinion that it is acceptable to hit a competitor during a competition
and they consider provocative behaviour as more meaningful than
athletes from individual sports. Some of these differences are the
outcome of nature of certain sport disciplines, for example, a more
provocative behaviour might be necessary in order to increase
psychological pressure on competitors. In addition, this is of more use
in team sports. A more aggressive, rough approach during a
competition is the usual outcome in sports with more physical
contacts. But the important question here concerns the limit, because
an act of physical aggressiveness does not seem to have a sufficient
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