INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC ACADEMY 7th JOINT - IOA

explanation, and the willingness to hurt a competitor of a trainer's
order even less sense. Such an attitude from an individual does not
express respect for authorities, but acts as a puppet, which is not
prepared to think about its own behaviour and consequences. The
second viewpoint of sportsmanship that shows greater differences
between groups is the attitude to rules and game. Athletes of
individual sports are more persuasive to in consider all the rules in
their discipline. They more often admit their own faults and they try
harder for the correct way of a game, for a good competition in
compliance with sportsmanlike behaviour, where they have to show as
many abilities as possible (which they try constantly to improve). On
the other hand, team athletes care more about classification, they try
much less to respect all the rules and they approve of tricking a referee
for their own benefit much more than sportsmen from individual
disciplines.
More researches in social psychology reveal that individual and
team sports have different social contexts (different structural forces).
Researches about intergroup conflicts showed that the very division
into two groups leads individuals to a bias against the other group
(Tajfel, 1982, after Vallerand, 1997). Besides that, team athletes are
subjugated to pressures inside the group – from other team-mates and
their trainer. They will most likely be obligated to conform and to act
in direction of a joint goal. At individual sports, this context is
different, because usually a competition is without physical contact.
Furthermore, because individual athletes depend more just on
themselves, it is less likely that they will be subjected to pressure from
others (in a direction of non-sportsmanlike behaviour). Therefore, it
seems that the social context is less favourable for sportsmanship in
team sports.
- Age comparison.
We divided the group according to the median value (1974,6 –
year of birth) into two groups, which differ just in factors 'respect of
rules and authorities' and sincerity. They are higher at younger
athletes. Older athletes probably have their own hierarchy of rules
which they follow more than others outside this hierarchy, because
through years they probably estimated the importance and meaning of
certain rules. Perhaps younger athletes know fewer rules, just the
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