Olympic VERSUS SOKOL MOVEMENT Cover Image

Olympic VERSUS SOKOL MOVEMENT
Olympic VERSUS SOKOL MOVEMENT

Author(s): Milena Strachová, Aleš Sekot
Subject(s): Sports Studies
Published by: Masarykova univerzita nakladatelství
Keywords: Olympics; the Sokol movement; performance; mass culture; Sport

Summary/Abstract: Contemporary sport in all its many-sided forms and levels is in the first line determined by global dynamic developmment of consumerist society oriented to economic prseperity, top performance, personal success, social admiration, unique uncomparable experience. The many sided world of sport is strongly reflected just now the pravailing etos of global drift, as well by the local cultural development of given sociaty. An essayistic comparasion of olympics as the reflection of top level of global sport on one side and and value etos of Sokol movement of other side, is specific contribution to the better understanding of different value roots and aiming, sense and objectives of sport(s) in our cultural context. At the contemporaty time of postmodern society, the Olympic Games are the most unique and most watched two-week sporting event of the best athletes in an ever-expanding range of traditional and new sports in the world. In the context of the growing commercialization and scientification of sport, is worthwhile to confront , the ideological emphases and ethos of both the founders of the initiators of the modern Olympic Games and the founders of the unique physical education movemet Sokol. Miroslav Tyrš and his followers at the time (Kožíšek) rejected competitive sports. Competitive performance sports and participation in the Olympic Games were not in the spectrum of Sokol's interest. The Sokol values ​​principles rejected the one-sidedness of the sports specialization with the pursuit of performances and victories. However, the later development of Sokol agreed with Coubertin's principle that Olympism is not a formal system, but a state of mind, a certain conception of life, a unique philosophy of life, a balance of physical fitness, will and spirit. Thus, in the development of Sokol and Olympism, there were culturally different emphasis on values, which today took the position of discussions about the meaning and mission of the top media-attractive elite sport, embodied primarily by the Olympic Games on the one hand and the movement for higher mass of sport in the sense of principle Sport for all on the other hand.

  • Issue Year: 16/2022
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 195-203
  • Page Count: 8
  • Language: English