Добровольческая деятельность в олимпийском спорте

The article examines the practice of Olympic volunteering during a pandemic. Olympic volunteers are people who volunteer to prepare for and host the Olympic and Paralympic Games without receiving direct payment. Olympic volunteering refers to a type of sports volunteering at the sites of major sport events (sports mega-events). Traditionally for the organization and holding of events, including sport events, volunteers are involved, who are recognized as a significant resource for the success of events at various levels. Such events as the Olympic Games - sports mega-events have special volunteer programs that allow people to gain experience in an international organization, attend events, gain new knowledge and skills. Based on the results of an online survey of volunteers (N =250) who participated in the organization and conduct of the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games, which were held in 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, channels for obtaining information about the possibility of participating in Olympic volunteering, incentives and barriers will be analysed for volunteers in the Olympic program. Special attention in the article will be paid to the peculiarities of the Olympic direction of volunteering during a pandemic. Based on the analysis of the results of the online survey of volunteers, we found that people with previous experience of volunteering often take part in the practices of Olympic volunteering. More than half of Olympic volunteers are satisfied with their participation in the Olympic Games. Also, more than half of the survey participants plan to continue to participate in volunteer activities in the future. Among the features that characterize the Olympic volunteer program in 2021, one can single out the additional responsibility of volunteers to ensure the safety of events, compliance with all necessary safety requirements, the need to acquire additional knowledge and skills, and a more attentive attitude towards each participant in the events. At the same time, it is important that modern security measures did not have a negative impact on the intentions of volunteers to continue volunteering.

Medals, Rings, and Olympic Dreams: A Review Essay of Antonio Sotomayor and Cesar R. Torres, eds., <i>Olimpismo</i>

Who Is to Blame and What Is to Be Done? The Rise and Fall of Russian Authority in the Olympics

Despite volunteers being essential to the success of the Olympic Games, research on Olympic volunteers’ perceptions of Olympic values remains negligible. This study was aimed to investigate this phenomenon with the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games volunteers. The researchers conducted a questionnaire survey related Olympic value perceptions and endorsement of Japan hosting the Tokyo 2020 Olympic games on 538 volunteers during the Games. The results identified that the value dimension of friendship had a significant influence on females’ endorsement of Japan hosting the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, and the value dimension of excellence reduced both females’ and males’ favorable endorsement. The findings and recommendations have ramifications for the future organizing committees of Olympic and Paralympic Games in terms of games delivery and Olympic volunteer legacy.

The article presents the results of an online survey conducted among the volunteers of the Olympic and/or Paralympic Games 2022 (Beijing, China). The text discusses the experience of participation of Chinese Olympic volunteers in relevant activities before the Games, their motivation for participating in the Olympic / Paralympic volunteer program, the level of satisfaction from participating in the organization and conduct of the Games, life and value orientations and attitudes towards further participation in volunteer activities. The results of the research show that more than half of the respondents had previous experience of participating in volunteer activities, as a rule, organized ones. Olympic volunteers have not only altruistic, but also selfish reasons in their motivation. Most of the volunteers of the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Beijing are satisfied with participation in this program, the largest proportion of respondents expressed a desire to participate in it again. Participants of the Olympic/Paralympic volunteer programs have demonstrated positive attitudes towards their current position and future, and a significant part of them plan to continue volunteering. Olympic volunteers, based on data on the level of satisfaction and future plans, represent a valuable resource for volunteering and can form a personnel reserve for professional volunteering and providing quality volunteer services.

Host cities have shown the intention of using the Olympic Games as a leverageable resource in achieving sustained volunteering among Olympic volunteers. I examined the relationship between the perceived benefits of Olympic volunteering and sustained volunteer behavior years after the megaevent. Participants were 353 volunteers who had been involved with the Beijing 2008, Singapore 2010, or Nanjing 2014 Games. The results of an online survey reveal that perceived benefits directly influenced sustained volunteering. A critical relationship between the development of volunteers' role identity and volunteering afterwards was confirmed. Perceived benefits were positively associated with role identity and, thus, indirectly promoted sustained volunteering behavior. Hence, perceived benefits arising from Olympic volunteering are the key to volunteer identity and sustained volunteering. For future practice, significant efforts are needed in the development of perceived benefits and role identity as a volunteer via individuals' experience of volunteering at sporting megaevents.

Postscript: History as anthropology

Другий етап розвитку сучасного олімпійського руху відповідно до авторської комплексно-фактологічної періодизації

This special collection is inspired by, and intended to carry on the legacy of, Dr. John J. MacAloon, the world-renowned Olympics expert and newly minted emeritus professor at the University of Chicago.1 It is made possible by a generous page allotment from Matthew Llewellyn and the editorial team of this journal, as well as the determination and staunch commitment of the contributors (and anonymous reviewers) who answered the call on a tight timeline in the middle of a global pandemic.My coeditor Amy August and I have been career-long students of Professor MacAloon, starting from our days at the University of Chicago, the storied institution where MacAloon has spent the vast majority of his professional life. We were both advised by MacAloon in the Masters of Arts Program in the Social Sciences (MAPSS)—a program he helped to build and served as its long-time director. It was in MAPSS that MacAloon introduced us, albeit in different eras, to the life of the mind and the grand, uncompromising traditions of social science at the University of Chicago. MacAloon was—and remains—a dazzling classroom teacher, a master interpreter of texts, and an endless font of wisdom and knowledge. (There is, in fact, a whole volume to be written on MacAloon's vision of liberal arts education and social science pedagogy—for a start, see General Education in the Social Sciences,2 edited and introduced by MacAloon himself.) More to the point of this volume, however, MacAloon also showed us that it was possible to build a career studying sport and provided us the intellectual foundations and a template on which to build.In shepherding this volume into being, August and I were driven not only by our desire to pay tribute to Professor MacAloon for his mentorship and long-term support. More importantly, we wanted to highlight and begin to synthesize the multiple insights, innovations, and foundational contributions to the study of the Olympic Games and to sport studies more generally to be found in MacAloon's research and writing for future generations of scholars. This was no easy task.MacAloon's contributions to the field are multifaceted and run deep. His ideas are not easily confined to any single area, nor prone to simple categorization or generalization. His scholarship includes books, edited collections, and journal articles as well as book chapters, speeches, reports, working papers, and extended interviews. Some work has never appeared in print, not yet fit for MacAloon's own exacting standards. While MacAloon sees the world in global scope and grand historical terms, his written work is often quite empirically grounded, specific, and intricate. His writing can require more layers of knowledge and reference than are available to the general reader or sport specialist. And because he often writes for very specific purposes, audiences, or outlets, the vision and overarching synthetic orientation that is MacAloon's hallmark only takes shape as one reads across the trajectory and full body of his work.Nevertheless, an organizing framework is needed. In putting together the proposal and call for this volume, August and I (with a little help from friends, some of them the authors included in this volume) came up with the following five-category outline to capture and convey MacAloon's primary themes and contributions over the years:3(1) Modern Olympic and Sport HistoryMacAloon announced his arrival as an intellectual and Olympic scholar with the publication of This Great Symbol, his study of the origins of the modern Olympic Games and its founder Pierre de Coubertin. The book remains a definitive source and, as MacAloon himself describes in the postscript to the second edition, paved the way both intellectually and in terms of access and credibility for the rest of his career.4 A great student of history, MacAloon worked on many other historical projects and pieces on various Olympic and modern sports events, incidents, and issues over the years, including the pathbreaking edited collection Muscular Christianity in Colonial and Post-Colonial Worlds.5(2) Social and Cultural TheoryOutside of Olympic and sport studies circles, MacAloon is probably best known for his work on ritual, ceremony, festival, and drama following in the tradition pioneered by his teacher and mentor Victor Turner, the great Scottish anthropologist. This emphasis is reflected in his theory of spectacle in modern culture, his framing and reworking of notions of liminality and hyperstructure, and his career-long engagement with the Olympic torch relay. In writing and teaching, MacAloon was ever on the cutting-edge of trends in theory ranging from dramaturgy, sociobiography, and psychoanalysis to poststructuralism and the semiotic revolution, globalization, and humanism. Among sport sociologists (at least), MacAloon's brief introduction to Pierre Bourdieu's well-known “Program for a Sociology of Sport” remains the lens through which the great social theorist is still taught and learned.6(3) Research Methods and EpistemologyExtending from his vision of theory as practice, MacAloon has a long, ongoing commitment to reflection on and the revitalization of social scientific research methods and epistemology. Much of this work is directed primarily to scholars of sport and the Olympics, and includes writing on ethnography and cultural studies, comparative and historical methods, and the introduction and refinement of team-based fieldwork. As an anthropologist studying one of the world's preeminent global institutions, MacAloon also served as an interlocutor at various international conferences, symposia, and collections on timely and timeless research topics in the social sciences, including intercultural exchange, the challenges of interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary work, and the role of identities, subjectivities, norms, and values in global, multicultural contexts.(4) Sport in Socio-Political ProcessesThe role of sport and the Olympic Games (if not popular culture and cultural movements more generally) in politics, global institutions, and other social processes is never far from MacAloon's interest and gaze. Some of his ideas about the broader social significance and political function of sport were sketched in a series of pieces written in the late 1980s and 1990s on political discourse, state legitimacy, and nationalism in global and domestic contexts. But these ideas were developed and applied most systematically in pieces that use international sport and the Olympic Games as both model for and microcosm of all of the complexities of intercultural exchange and ways of knowing in the contemporary global world.(5) Olympic Movement, Institutions, and GovernancePerhaps no other scholar in history has taken the origins, evolution, structures, and ongoing inner-workings of the contemporary International Olympic Committee (IOC) and related international sports organizations as seriously as an object of study as MacAloon. His knowledge of Olympic leadership and administrative structure, Olympic study centers and training programs, and various Olympic protocol and processes is legendary, enriched (if also complicated) by his many roles within the movement as historian, institution builder, advocate, critic, and conscience. His periodic commentaries and reports on various Olympic developments, processes, and trends track the contemporary history of the Games; his distinction between the Olympic industry and the Olympic Movement remains ever-enlightening as an analytic device; and his insistence on the fundamental significance of the torch relay—embodied in the volume Bearing Light: Flame Relays and the Struggle for the Olympic Movement—is both beacon and barometer of the Movement's grandest hopes, aspirations, and claims.7We did not ask our contributors—a veritable all-star, international cast of Olympic scholars—to address all of these topics, much less offer an overarching synthesis or global assessment of MacAloon's output. Instead, we suggested that they reflect and write on those themes in MacAloon's work that they knew best and (if possible) that they themselves were most directly influenced by or in dialogue with. The result is a wonderfully rich and eclectic collection that, we believe, spans the scope and does justice to the depth of MacAloon's own corpus.Argentinian philosopher Cesar Torres, currently a professor at the College of Brockport, State University of New York, is perhaps most comprehensive and global in his approach, organizing MacAloon's contributions in three main areas—the history of the IOC; the anthropology of the Games; and the ethical and political challenges of the Movement. But what is most significant and original about Torres's treatment is his explication of how ideas about communitas, derived from MacAloon's mentor Victor Turner, can be seen at the root of all of MacAloon's Olympic theory, research, and practice.Bruce Kidd's reflections on various research and Olympic advocacy collaborations with MacAloon over the years takes us deep into the team-based research approaches that MacAloon introduced in a range of Olympic settings. Kidd—himself recently retired from a long and distinguished university career in Canada and one of MacAloon's own athletic, academic, and activist heroes—also captures the passion, idealism, energy, and utter seriousness that both of these pioneering Olympic scholars bring to all their work.Beatriz Garcia, director of international academic research at the University of Liverpool and member of the IOC's Culture and Olympic Heritage Committee, focuses on the role of the culture and the arts in Olympics events, institutions, and the movement as a whole. Garcia's focus is obviously indebted to and in direct dialogue with MacAloon's meta-level ideas and reflections about the ever-expanding meaning and significance of sport and the Olympics in global culture and thus captures both the possibilities and complications of the Olympic Games for intercultural education, knowledge, and understanding.The final contribution comes from Jean-Loup Chappelet, an emeritus professor of public management at the Swiss Graduate School of Public Administration (IDHEAP) at the University of Lausanne and a member of the ASOIF (Association of Summer Olympic International Federations) Governance Taskforce. Chappelet's deceptively straightforward documentation of the evolution, growth, and scope of the IOC as an administrative entity is testament to MacAloon's ongoing insistence that to truly understand the Olympics and the Olympic Movement one must know the often-backstage organizational structure and dynamics that, for better or worse, make the Games what they are today.How to summarize all of this? Provide some final last words? We almost did not dare. It seemed like there was only one semi-safe way to even attempt this task. Indeed, August and I hit upon asking MacAloon himself to participate in a format he has utilized and championed over the years: a wide-ranging, no-holds-barred epilogue edited together from multiple conversations and extended email exchanges between August and MacAloon (and occasionally myself). He was more than up for the challenge. The result, we believe, is broad, synthetic, and wide-ranging; thoughtful, inspirational, and occasionally cantankerous. Hopefully it is a useful representation and overview not only of MacAloon's published work but of John MacAloon the intellectual, the thinker and teacher, the ever-engaged Olympic scholar, advocate, and critic.

The research objective was to study the motivation of Russian and Chinese volunteers at the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2014 and 2022. Mega-sport events attract public attention worldwide and require a lot of volunteers. Based on the international scope of Olympic volunteer community, a cross-country analysis of volunteering experience is a relevant topic. The Russian program for training of Olympic volunteers was the first of its kind. It was funded by the state on the basis of educational institutions, non-profit and commercial organizations. China is currently developing its own Olympic volunteer program, which relies mainly on government organizations. The study relied on an online survey of Olympic volunteers. Chinese volunteers appeared to have been motivated by value and defensive reasons, while Russian volunteers were attracted by the informational and professional opportunities that Olympic volunteering has to offer. The research results can help to develop volunteer programs, as well as to improve their effectiveness and popularity.

This literature review paper aims to understand the different perspectives on the inclusion or not of eSports in the Olympic Games programme. ESports (electronic sports) popularity among world’s youth population grows daily. The eSports phenomenon became a new form of entertainment with its own financial means and cultural practices, very close related to streaming technology, and ultimately bringing new questions and challenges for the so-called ‘traditional sports’ field. The audience success sparked the gaming industry with a considerable economic growth, transforming a backyard practice in the beginning of the century into a worldwide recognized activity; a megaevent in terms of infrastructure and media coverage. Therefore, in a short period of time the debate about eSports become recognized as ‘sport’ as well as to be include into the Olympic Games programme emerged. In recent years, some decisions heated this debate. For example, at the occasion of the 6th Summit of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), held at Lausanne (Switzerland) in 2017, eSports were placed on the agenda about the future of the Olympic Movement. As a result of the Summit discussions, the IOC concluded that (1) eSports have been demonstrating a sharp growth with the youth of several countries and could become a platform for engagement between this young population and the Olympic Movement; (2) eSports can be considered a physical activity and the players training intensity could be compared to ‘traditional sports’ athletes; (3) to be recognized as sport by the IOC, the contents of eSports must not violate the Olympic Values; and (4) in order to the IOC grant recognition, an international eSports federation must be created to ensure the compliance of the rules and regulations of the Olympic Movement (IOC, 2017). Moreover, another important milestone was the announcement of the Intel World Open, an eSports event organized by Intel in partnership with the IOC that is going to be held in July 2020 and it will be a pre-event for the Tokyo Olympic Games. In this sense, this paper has an exploratory approach and the Content Analysis was the interpretational method used. The main results indicated three categories of understanding about the eSports and the Olympics relation: (1) the eSports does not have the necessary features to be considered ‘sport’, then could not be included in Olympic programme; (2) the eSports activity is comparable to ‘traditional sports’, therefore could be part of the Olympic programme; and (3) the eSports could have its own ‘Olympic event’, a parallel competition such as Paralympics. In this sense, the relationship between the eSports and the Olympic Movement is undeniable and despite the different arguments analysed in paper, there are other perspectives remaining to be considered. Thus, a second phase of this study is currently under development and it includes the eSports and Olympics protagonists point of view about the research topic.

The purpose of the study is to enhance the process of Olympic education by utilizing an algorithm for the formation of knowledge about the Olympic movement among older preschool children. Research methods and organization. Literature analysis on the selected topic; analysis of official documents; pedagogical experiments; pedagogical observations of the educational and upbringing process, as well as the play activities of older preschoolers and their parents aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of the developed program; testing; and methods of mathematical statistics were employed. The developed program for forming notions about the Olympic movement among older preschoolers was tested at the Municipal Autonomous Preschool Educational Institution "Child Development Center," kindergarten No. 167 "Rodnichok" in Khabarovsk over a period of 8 months, from October 2023 to May 2024. The experimental program was built on a combination of various methods and forms of activities with children. It included: theoretical classes dedicated to Olympic themes; presentations on outstanding athletes; a 'virtual museum' that allows for an exploration of the history of the ancient Olympic Games; musical sessions that unveil the world of music and songs that resonated during home Olympiads; drawing classes to reinforce knowledge about the symbols of the Olympics; as well as video screenings demonstrating the grandeur of the Olympic Games; 'Olympic lessons' with the involvement of students from FESAPC, quizzes, physical education activities, and a theatrical celebration titled 'Mini Olympic Games.' All topics within the Olympic block were distributed across the months and included in the thematic plan. Research results and conclusions. After conducting the experiment, a positive trend in the change of knowledge levels among older preschoolers regarding the Olympic movement was observed. Weak knowledge ('low level') was demonstrated by 5% of the children, 'average level' was identified in 35%, and 'high level' was found in 60% of preschoolers. The results obtained allow for a conclusion about the effectiveness of the implemented program, as evidenced by the significant increase in children's knowledge on the proposed topics, and it also heightened the interest of preschoolers and their parents in physical culture activities.

Despite volunteers being essential to the success of the Olympic Games, research on Olympic volunteers’ motivations remains limited. The aim of this study was to investigate this phenomenon with volunteers at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results of a questionnaire survey of 546 volunteers identified three dimensional motivations (i.e., relationship with others, love of the Olympics and sports, and esteem needs) that drove them to become Olympic volunteers. These findings clearly differ from Western society, as illuminated by the previous studies which revealed that resume material and networking were key factors in volunteerism at Olympic Games held in Sydney in 2000 Athens in 2004, Vancouver in 2010, and London in 2012. It became clear that the greatest influence on the achievement of the Tokyo 2020 volunteer concept of ‘I will shine’ were love of Olympics and sports, and esteem needs. The volunteers’ endorsement of holding the Olympic Games during the COVID-19 pandemic was supported by relationship with others and affection of the Olympics and sports. The findings and recommendations have ramifications for the future organizing committees of the Olympic and Paralympic Games in terms of volunteer participants by considering cultural background.

Volunteers are a core component of sport service delivery and an important element of the Olympic Games culture. However, little research has addressed the specific characteristics and experiences of individuals who dedicate their time and effort to volunteer at mega-sporting events, more specifically at the Olympic Games. The current study aims to contribute to the literature so that more effective volunteer recruitment and management strategies can be fostered. The purpose of the study was to investigate motives of volunteers at the Athens 2004 Olympics and examine the factorial structure of the Olympic Volunteer Motivation Scale (OVMS). Data were gathered from a volunteer sample of 146 individuals who offered their services in the Olympic Aquatic Center and the Olympic Village. Scores from the 18-item OVMS demonstrated satisfactory validity and reliability. The extracted factors (Olympic related, Egoistic, and Purposive) were well defined and interpreted in terms of the items included. Given the fact that volunteers at the Olympic Games might be motivated by reasons that differ from those at local sporting events, the OVMS will provide information that could further support the Olympic volunteer movement in terms of effective volunteer recruitment and satisfaction.

Objective. Study of the Olympic Games and the Olympic movement as an aggregate of phenomena and processes of historical, socio-economic, political, educational, and purely sports character in their organic relationship, with due account for achievements and issues, positive and negative aspects, risks and development prospects. Results. Most of the modern initiatives and educational resources implemented in the modern Olympic education system are focused only on obtaining general ideas about the Olympic Games and the Olympic movement, active promoting the ideals and values of the Olympic philosophy, which has been peculiar for the policy of the IOC and IOA in this area for several decades. Traditionally established concept of the Olympic education, peculiar for most countries, lags behind the needs of the time, is characterized by weak sociocultural content, limited criticism and commitment to emotional rhetoric, especially in the part that relates to the universalism of the Olympic values, claims to the global educational potential of the Olympic education. However, the Olympic movement and the Olympic Games do not need artificial idealization. Their value is in the greatest history, bright modernity, diversity and popularity, difficulties and contradictions, numerous interrelations with politics and economics, culture and art, education and upbringing. Versatile and objective consideration and study of the Olympic movement and, above all, the Olympic Games various aspects, with account for all strengths and weaknesses, achievements and issues, weak points and drawbacks can in no way adversely affect the popularity and significance of this phenomenon, including as an object of the Olympic education. On the contrary, the idealization of the Olympic sport and the Olympic Games, outstanding athletes and their role in the process of educational and upbringing, ignoring issues, difficulties, contradictions, negative phenomena and risk factors are a direct way to the devaluation of the Olympic education, to skepticism regarding its potentials and significance.