Sport Domain Research Articles

Development and validation of the Gender Stereotypes in Sport Scale (GSSS) in an Italian soccer context

ABSTRACT This study aims to develop and validate the Gender Stereotypes in Sport Scale (GSSS), an instrument evaluating people’s endorsement of gender stereotypes in sport with a focus on soccer. The study was conducted with a total sample of 740 Italians, including 389 women and 351 men aged 18 to over 60, 403 laypeople and 337 experts in the field (i.e., athletes, coaches, medical staff, and managers). First, a pool of 22 items was initially created after conducting interviews with the experts. Next, the factorial structure of the scale was assessed through cross-validated exploratory-confirmatory factor analyses with two different sub-samples of 370 participants each. Three factors for a total of 16 items emerged from the analyses: “stereotypical beliefs” (i.e., stereotypical opinions about women and girls in soccer), “egalitarian beliefs” (i.e., items emphasising the equality of male and female performances), and “openness” (i.e., items concerning people’s open-mindedness about women and girls in soccer). The validity of the GSSS was supported by significant correlations with sexism and adherence to masculine traits. Men, those with lower education, and experts reported higher endorsement of gender stereotypes according to all three factors. Crucially, multigroup confirmatory factor analysis confirmed scale invariance across gender, education, and familiarity with soccer. The GSSS allows researchers to assess gender stereotypes in sport, facilitating the understanding of their correlates. By better comprehending the causes and consequences of these beliefs, scholars and practitioners can contribute to ongoing public discussions regarding gender equity and promote inclusivity in the sport domain.

The analysis of generative adversarial network in sports education based on deep learning

The importance of mental health is increasingly emphasized in modern society. The assessment of mental health qualities among college and university students as the future workforce holds significant significance. Therefore, this study, aiming to streamline the process of writing quality evaluations and enhance the fairness of assessment comments, explores the use of Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) technology in deep learning to evaluate the mental health qualities of college and university students through the unique avenue of sports. Firstly, GAN and Sequence Generative Adversarial Network (SeqGAN) models are introduced. Secondly, GAN is employed to construct a model for generating evaluation texts, encompassing the construction of a generator and discriminator, along with the introduction of a reward function. Finally, the constructed model is utilized to train on evaluation texts related to the mental health qualities of college and university students engaged in sports, validating the effectiveness of the model. The results indicate: (1) The pre-training of the generator in the constructed text generation model stabilizes after the 10th epoch. In contrast, the pre-training of the discriminator gradually stabilizes after the 35th epoch, demonstrating overall good training effectiveness. (2) When the generator’s update speed surpasses that of the discriminator, the model’s loss does not converge. However, with a reduction in the ratio of rounds between the two, there is a noticeable improvement in the convergence of the model. (3) The mean score of adaptability quality is the highest among the four indicators, suggesting a strong correlation between comment generation and adaptability quality. The results validate the effectiveness of the proposed text generation model in semantic control. This study aims to advance the level of mental health education among college and university students in the sports domain, providing theoretical references for enhancing the effectiveness of quality education assessments in other subjects as well.

Constructing a grounded theory of grit in sport: understanding the development and outcomes of long-term passion and perseverance in competitive athletes

ABSTRACT To be successful, athletes are expected to overcome the many setbacks and demands of sport throughout the entirety of their competitive career. Grit – or passion and perseverance over long terms – has been linked to positive outcomes in the sport domain, but progress in the field has been hindered by a lack of sufficient theory. The purpose of this study was to construct a grounded theory of competitive athletes’ grit in sport, and constructivist grounded theory methodology was adopted. Twenty-seven participants (14 women, 13 men; 22 athletes, 5 coaches) involved in competitive sport participated in individual semi-structured interviews. Data analysis involved an iterative process of initial coding, focused coding, axial coding, and theoretical integration. Results showed grit to be a malleable dispositional tendency that was formed over time as athletes amassed significant sport experiences. With the encouragement from supportive others, athletes would adopt adaptive cognitions about success and failure. These cognitions would then develop into a propensity to identify and strive towards long-term goals in sport. Participants described grit as leading to several outcomes, including sport-specific goal achievement, adaptive outcomes, and maladaptive outcomes. Our research advances the study of grit in sport by providing researchers and practitioners a deeper understanding of the processes that encapsulate competitive athletes’ sport-specific grit. Implications for practice (e.g., how sport support persons might foster grit in athletes) and recommendations for future research (e.g., improving the measurement of grit in sport) are also discussed.

Extension of the 3 × 2 achievement goal model to university concert band performance

The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which the 3 × 2 achievement goal model describes the goal orientations of university band students in two performance contexts. Students ( N = 183) enrolled in four concert band ensembles at two universities completed a goal orientation questionnaire, once in reference to personal music performance goals and once in reference to music performance goals as members of their university concert bands. The questionnaire, translated from the sports domain for use with musicians, measured the six goal orientations of the 3 × 2 achievement goal model: task-approach, task-avoidance, self-approach, self-avoidance, other-approach, other-avoidance. Results of confirmatory factor analyses indicate satisfactory fit of the six-factor model in the personal and ensemble contexts. In both contexts, the 3 × 2 model demonstrates better fit to the university band student data than ten alternative models. The model also demonstrates construct reliability and validity. Discussion includes evaluation of model fit differences between performance contexts. Future study of musician’s goal orientations could benefit from participant-level analysis and further examination of performance context differences. Continued development of a 3 × 2 achievement goal model scale for musicians could further bolster goal orientation research in the music domain.

That's the way I (dis-)like it! - Effect of Gamer Types and Competitiveness in VR Exergaming

In response to growing global concerns surrounding sedentary lifestyles among adults, the imperative to motivate physical activity has driven the exploration of Virtual Reality (VR) exergames as a promising solution. Personality traits, particularly competitiveness, can play a pivotal role in influencing individuals' motivation to engage in either competitive or non-competitive versions of the same exergame. While existing studies have primarily focused on sports-related competitive orientations, they have overlooked the potential gain in information from gaming-related personality traits. This research addresses this gap by using a modified gaming-related competitiveness questionnaire and evaluating a VR cycling exergame featuring solo, self-competition and virtual opponent cycling conditions in a controlled user study with 38 participants. Empirical findings reveal a notable difference in self-rated competitiveness between the two domains of sports and gaming, and significant correlations between some gamer-types and motivation. These findings highlight the importance of these personality types during exergaming and their potential efficacy for personalisation to increase motivation.

The Physiological Mechanisms of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation to Enhance Motor Performance: A Narrative Review.

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a non-invasive neuromodulation technique that applies a stable, low-intensity (1-2 mA) direct current to modulate neuronal activity in the cerebral cortex. This technique is effective, simple to operate, affordable, and widely employed across various fields. tDCS has been extensively used in clinical and translational research, with growing applications in military and competitive sports domains. In recent years, the use of tDCS in sports science has garnered significant attention from researchers. Numerous studies have demonstrated that tDCS can enhance muscle strength, explosive power, and aerobic metabolism, reduce fatigue, and improve cognition, thereby serving as a valuable tool for enhancing athletic performance. Additionally, recent research has shed light on the physiological mechanisms underlying tDCS, including its modulation of neuronal resting membrane potential to alter cortical excitability, enhancement of synaptic plasticity to regulate long-term potentiation, modulation of neurovascular coupling to improve regional cerebral blood flow, and improvement of cerebral network functional connectivity, which activates and reinforces specific brain regions. tDCS also enhances the release of excitatory neurotransmitters, further regulating brain function. This article, after outlining the role of tDCS in improving physical performance, delves into its mechanisms of action to provide a deeper understanding of how tDCS enhances athletic performance and offers novel approaches and perspectives for physical performance enhancement.

Sports following and social capital in the United States: Social networks and trust

Scholarship on sports following represents a burgeoning field of inquiry in the sociology of sport, yet sport following's connections to, or ability to facilitate, social capital remains underexplored. Drawing on a contemporary nationwide survey of the United States and employing the foundational theories of social capital by which we operationalize statistical analyses using regression modeling, this study investigates the nuanced contributions of sports following to various dimensions of social capital. Our analysis reveals complex relationships of sports following to social network size, community engagement, neighborhood trust, and social network variety, highlighting sports following as a significant predictor for all our operationalized social capital measures, although negatively so for neighborhood trust. Exploring the interplay between sports following, individual characteristics, and socio-political affiliations, results underscore the powerful predictive capacity of sports following even controlling for other characteristics, highlighting strong potentiality for building social capital, although along some dimensions more than others. These findings spotlight the domain of sports following as fertile ground for further investigation into its capacity to serve as a unique facilitator of social capital on the increasingly divided American socio-cultural landscape.

Does mental fatigue affect performance in racket sports? A systematic review

Mental fatigue impairs performance across several sports domains. However, a systematic review on its effects on racket sports performance has been lacking due to the previous scarcity of studies. This review aims to provide a comprehensive review the effects of mental fatigue on racket players’ performance, with a discussion of the underlying mechanisms. A thorough search was conducted across five databases, including Web of Science, PubMed, SCOPUS, SPORTDiscus (via EBSCOhost), and the Psychological and Behavioral Science Collection (via EBSCOhost). The PICOS framework established the inclusion criteria: (1) healthy racket sports players; (2) induction of mental fatigue in both field and laboratory settings; (3) comparison of mental fatigue interventions with a control group (e.g., watching a movie or reading a magazine); (4) assessment of performance outcomes, including physical performance, skilled performance, and perceptual-cognitive performance; and (5) randomized controlled trials (RCTs), non-randomized controlled trials (non-RCTs), and non-randomized non-controlled trials. Mental fatigue manipulation, subjective evaluation, and (neuro)physiological markers were synthesized to support the successful induction of mental fatigue. Performance was categorized into tennis, table tennis, badminton, and padel based on the characteristics of specific racket sports domains. Secondary outcomes, such as the rate perception of effort (RPE) and motivation, were synthesized to explain the mechanisms based on the prominent theory of the Psychobiological model of endurance performance. Six studies revealed that mental fatigue impacts stroke performance in table tennis, affecting speed, accuracy, faults, and only second-serve accuracy in tennis. The response time of psychomotor performance increased in table tennis, padel, and badminton. Meanwhile, mental fatigue increased the RPE and remained unchanged in heart rate, blood glucose, and lactate, consistent with the Psychobiological model of endurance performance. Additionally, attention is suggested as a significant underlying psychobiological factor.

Measurement properties of the Regular Physical Exercise Adherence Scale (REPEAS) in individuals with chronic pain

ObjectiveTo examine the measurement properties of the Regular Physical Exercise Adherence Scale (REPEAS) in Brazilians with chronic pain.MethodsCross-sectional and longitudinal design (washout period for reliability). The study was conducted in two Brazilian states, Maranhão and São Paulo, and included Brazilian adults, irregular exercisers, former exercisers or non-exercise practitioners, aged 18 to 59 years and with chronic pain. The instruments used in this study were: the REPEAS, the Numerical Pain Rating Scale (NPRS), the Baecke Habitual Physical Activity Questionnaire (BHPAQ), the Pain Self-Efficacy Questionnaire (PSEQ), and the Roland-Morris Disability Questionnaire for general pain (RMDQ-g). The evaluation focused on structural validity, construct validity, reliability (with standard error of measurement and minimum detectable change), internal consistency, and floor and ceiling effects.ResultsThe two-dimensional structure was tested through confirmatory factor analysis, which resulted in adequate fit indeces: chi-square values/degrees of freedom = 1.541, Tucker-Lewis Index = 0.966, comparative fit index = 0.974, root mean square error of approximation = 0.074, and standardized root mean square residual = 0.068. Additionally, satisfactory factor loadings (> 0.40) were obtained. Test-retest reliability and internal consistency were adequate for the environmental factors domain (intraclass correlation coefficient [ICC] = 0.79, Cronbach’s alpha = 0.88) and the personal factors domain (ICC = 0.97, Cronbach’s alpha = 0.93). In hypothesis testing for construct validity, we observed a significant correlation with magnitude below 0.30 of the environmental factors domain of the REPEAS with RMDQ-g, PSEQ and sport domain of the BHPAQ. For the personal factors domain, we observed a significant correlation with a magnitude of 0.30 to 0.50 with RMDQ-g, PSEQ, and sport domain of the BHPAQ, and below 0.30 with leisure domain of the BHPAQ. No floor or ceiling effects were found for the REPEAS domains.ConclusionThe REPEAS is a valid instrument with a two-dimensional internal structure consisting of 12 items. It has a reliable construct and is suitable for use in the clinical and epidemiological context for adults with chronic pain in Brazil.

Flexible arch-shaped triboelectric sensor based on 3D printing for badminton movement monitoring and intelligent recognition of technical movements

Efficient monitoring and recognition of movement are crucial in enhancing athletic performance. Traditional methods have limitations in terms of high site requirements and power consumption, making them unsuitable for long-term tracking and monitoring. A potential solution to low-power monitoring of body area networks is triboelectric sensors. However, the current analysis method for badminton triboelectric sensing data is relatively simple, while flexible, triboelectric sensors based on 3D printing face issues such as discomfort when joints are bent or twisted in a large range. In light of this, a flexible arch-shaped triboelectric sensor based on 3D printing (FA-Sensor) is proposed. By combining neural network algorithms with the signal acquisition module and the master computer, an intelligent multi-sensor node system for badminton monitoring is established. The FA-Sensor exhibits high sensitivity to bending and twisting motions due to its elastic TPE shell and arched shape design. It minimizes interference with human motion during bending (10°–150°) or twisting (20°–100°) over a wide range. The peak output voltage of the FA-Sensor demonstrates a clear functional relationship with the bending angle, exhibiting piecewise sensitivities of 7.98 and 29.28 mV/°, respectively. For seven different parts of the human body, it can be quickly customized to different sizes, with stable and repeatable response outputs. In application, the badminton sports monitoring system enables real-time feedback and recognition of four typical technical movements, achieving a recognition accuracy rate of 97.2%. The system enables athletes to analyze and enhance badminton technology while also exhibiting promising potential for application in other intelligent sports domains.

From Coubertin’s Olympism to neoliberal sports spectacle: narratives of Brazilian Olympic athletes

ABSTRACT This study aimed to examine how Brazilian athletes, who participated in the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, perceive Olympism and its values within the context of their sports training, particularly considering the prevalent neoliberal elements in their high-performance sports environment. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight athletes from a region with a strong emphasis on competitive sports. The analysis revealed that athletes primarily associate Olympism with their personal experiences in sports. Their representations align with an Olympic and neoliberal framework, emphasizing performance and professionalism, while also recognizing them as moral exemplars. Athletes develop their understanding of sports values within the discourse of high-performance sports and daily routines. These findings highlight the integration of Olympism into athletes’ perceptions, shaped by the demands of neoliberal ideologies that prioritize competitiveness and commercialization within the sports domain. The study provides a critical perspective on the influence of neoliberalism on the formation of Olympic athletes’ subjectivity.

Exploring Entrepreneurial Intention Among Students in the Academic Sports Domain: A Multifaceted Examination

Exploring Entrepreneurial Intention Among Students in the Academic Sports Domain: A Multifaceted Examination

Soutcom: Real‐time sentiment analysis of Arabic text for football fan satisfaction using a bidirectional LSTM

AbstractIn the last few years, various topics, including sports, have seen social media platforms emerge as significant sources of information and viewpoints. Football fans use social media to express their opinions and sentiments about their favourite teams and players. Analysing these opinions can provide valuable information on the satisfaction of football fans with their teams. In this article, we present Soutcom, a scalable real‐time system that estimates the satisfaction of football fans with their teams. Our approach leverages the power of social media platforms to gather real‐time opinions and emotions of football fans and applies state‐of‐the‐art machine learning‐based sentiment analysis techniques to accurately predict the sentiment of Arabic posts. Soutcom is designed as a cloud‐based scalable system integrated with the X (formerly known as Twitter) API and a football data service to retrieve live posts and match data. The Arabic posts are analysed using our proposed bidirectional LSTM (biLSTM) model, which we trained on a custom dataset specifically tailored for the sports domain. Our evaluation shows that the proposed model outperforms other machine learning models such as Random Forest, XGBoost and Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) in terms of accuracy and F1‐score with values of 0.83 and 0.82, respectively. Furthermore, we analyse the inference time of our proposed model and suggest that there is a trade‐off between performance and efficiency when selecting a model for sentiment analysis on Arabic posts.

Challenges and Issues Encountered by Elite Coaches in Developing Student-Athletes at Malaysian Sports Schools

The Malaysian Sports School (MSS) is a governmental institution under the purview of the Ministry of Education Malaysia. It is a specialised institution that prioritises sports education and training for exceptionally gifted young athletes. The primary goal of MSS is to create a conducive environment for students to thrive in both academic and athletic pursuits. It is imperative to enhance the domain of sports at the school level in order to optimise the performance and accomplishments of student-athletes across different sports disciplines. Hence, this study aims to investigate the specific problems and obstacles encountered by top-tier coaches at MSS in nurturing gifted student-athletes The study employed the Qualitative Method, specifically utilising the Evolved Grounded Theory approach developed by Strauss and Corbin. Data was gathered from ten elite coaches in five MSS using in-depth semi-structured open interviews, observation, and document analysis. The purpose was to identify the primary issues and challenges they encountered. The data were transcribed exactly as spoken and analysed using Atlas. ti 8.0 software, following the recommended approach of open coding, axial coding, and selective coding as proposed by Strauss and Corbin. The study's findings indicate that coaching presents three primary challenges: 1) Roles and Responsibilities, 2) Performance goals, and 3) External Factors. In addition, there are three primary coaching issues: 1) Facilities, 2) Maintenance, and 3) Transportation. Hence, this discovery will assist MSS stakeholders, particularly the ministry and other stakeholders, in recognising and addressing areas that can be enhanced and reinforced for the mentoring and growth requirements of student athletes. This will ensure that MSS plays a pivotal role in cultivating skilled student athletes who can represent Malaysia in the future. Keywords: Elite coach, student-athlete's development, challenges, issues, challenges, Malaysian sports school.

Privacy-preserving sports data fusion and prediction with smart devices in distributed environment

With the rapid advancement of sports analytics and fan engagement technologies, the volume and diversity of physique data generated by smart devices across various distributed sports platforms have grown significantly. Extracting insights and enhancing fan experiences from such data offer considerable benefits. Yet, this process unveils two primary challenges. Firstly, efficiently utilizing the vast datasets in sports analytics is daunting due to the complex nature of the sports industry. Secondly, the data collected from diverse sources and stored in distributed platforms contain sensitive information like fan preferences and athlete performance metrics, posing risks of privacy breaches. To address these challenges, we leverage an advanced Locality-Sensitive Hashing technique, known as PSDFPALSH\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$_{\ ext {ALSH}}$$\\end{document}, tailored for the sports domain. This paper presents a new privacy-preserving method for sports data fusion and prediction in distributed environments, utilizing enhanced Locality-Sensitive Hashing to protect sensitive information while maintaining high data utility. Through extensive experimentation, our approach demonstrates superior performance over existing methods in terms of Mean Absolute Error (MAE), Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE), and computational efficiency.

Evaluating the association between lifetime physical activity and oral squamous cell carcinoma: A case-control study.

Oral cancers are the 6th most common malignancy worldwide and oral squamous cell carcinoma, comprises over 90% of oral cancers. This study investigates the relationship between physical activity level during the lifetime and oral squamous cell carcinoma risk. 100 oral squamous cell carcinoma patients and 200 healthy individuals participated in this case-control study. Physical activity level was evaluated via the Lifetime Physical Activity Questionnaire. The occupational, household, and sports domains of lifetime physical activity were determined. Case and control groups' participants were matched in terms of sex, age, smoking, and alcohol consumption by the Frequency Matching Method. Mann-Whitney U Test was applied to compare physical activity levels between groups. The Body Mass Index was higher among cases compared with controls. The average amounts of lifetime physical activity among cases and controls were approximately identical. However, only a statistically significant difference between time spent on total lifetime physical activities and the oral squamous cell carcinoma risk was discovered. Moreover, there were no statistically significant odds ratios in examining the risk associated with each domain of activities. The total time spent on lifetime physical activity may decrease the risk of oral squamous cell carcinoma; However, the total level and intensity of lifetime physical activity are not significantly associated with the oral squamous cell carcinoma risk. Further studies are required in this field.

Differences and Definitions of the Two Types of Passion Trigger New Ideas: Integration of the Passion and Perseverance Scale and Passion Levels Intervention

The Dualistic Model of Passion (DMP) divides passion into two categories: Harmonious Passion and Obsessive Passion. These categories are based on how individuals internalize their activities, and they have different characteristics and roles. Harmonious Passion is generally considered healthier and more stable than Obsessive Passion, and it has a more positive impact on the individual. Over the last two decades, the DMP and the Dualistic Scale of Passion(DSP) have been commonly used to examine the effects of Harmonious Passion and Obsessive Passion on individual achievement and burnout in the domains of work, study, and sport et al. Future research could integrate perseverance and passion to develop a scale that better predicts individual achievement. Furthermore, researchers could investigate additional techniques for intervening in passion based on the dynamic variability of passion, using autonomy as a starting point to regulate the type and intensity of passion.

Scientific identity and epistemology of movement, exercise, and sport sciences through the analysis of scientific production of Italian full professors

This study addresses the epistemological and identity challenges encountered by Movement, Exercise, and Sport Sciences (MEaSS) in Italy, particularly concerning the organization of scientific knowledge within academic contexts. MEaSS struggles to define its scientific identity and address epistemological concerns due to the concurrent operation of its academic scientific disciplines (ASD) within both biomedical and pedagogical domains. This situation raises questions about the classification of knowledge within MEaSS and its distinctiveness within the Italian academic community. The study aims to analyze the scientific production of Italian full professors in two ASDs of MEaSS and determine its relevance to biomedical, pedagogical, psychological, or sports domains. It also intends to investigate the alignment of Italian academic structures with international standards, particularly the European Research Council (ERC) model. Each full professor’s top 20 scientific products, ranked by the highest number of citations within the Google Scholar database, were analyzed. The analysis of scientific production among Italian full professors in the two ASDs of Movement, Exercise, and Sport Sciences (MEaSS) revealed significant findings. In the ASD of M-EDF/01, 58.5% of publications were attributed to the biomedical domain, followed by 32.7% in the sports domain, 6.9% in the pedagogical domain, and 1.9% in the psychological domain. For the ASD of M-EDF/02, 47.5% of publications were in the biomedical domain, 25% in the sports domain, 18.1% in the pedagogical domain, and 9.4% in the psychological domain. The prevalence of biomedical-focused research within both ASDs of MEaSS highlights a notable deviation from the intended disciplinary boundaries, raising concerns regarding the loss of scientific identity and epistemological coherence. These results emphasize the urgent need for alignment with international standards to ensure clarity of scientific identity and promote interdisciplinary research in MEaSS.

Emerging Trends in Sports and Artificial Intelligence: A Scientometric Analysis in Citespace

This study endeavors to utilize CiteSpace software to construct and examine co-citation networks of references within the domains of sports and artificial intelligence (AI), gathered from the Web of Science. The aim is to delineate the progression of AI applications in sports and to pinpoint current research focal points. Analyzing a corpus of 2,493 papers sourced from the Web of Science via CiteSpace, the findings reveal a year-on-year escalation in the application of AI within sports over the last twelve years (2010 to 2021). Machine learning has found extensive application in sports, notably in the analysis of athlete behavior, prediction of match outcomes, and physiological monitoring, among other areas. The evolution of sports and AI has witnessed two significant fluctuations within the past twelve years, specifically in 2011 and 2014. The modularity shift in 2011 indicated an uptick in the analysis of tasks and the identification of human activities. The year 2014 was marked as a pivotal moment with the advent of visualization utilization in team sports and wearable technologies. The study underscores the presence of numerous unexplored intellectual avenues within the sports and AI domain, which warrant further exploration in future research endeavors. Key milestones spanning from 2010 to 2021 are elucidated through visual analysis.

Two concepts of sporting excellence

ABSTRACT This paper deals with the question of whether nature sports are to be counted among the (traditional) sports and Kevin Krein’s recent argument, based on sporting excellence, as to why they should. Krein argues that sports as such are ultimately about sporting excellence and because both so-called traditional sports and nature sports fulfil that criterion, nature sports belong in the sport domain. Here, I show that Krein’s argument rests on an equivocation between two concepts of sporting excellence. Sporting excellence in traditional sports is connected to sporting success. Here agon (contest or competition) dictates or frames areté (striving for excellence). This is not the case for sporting excellence in nature sports, as these are not competitions. We are dealing with two different concepts of sporting excellence and Krein’s argument, based on sporting excellence, must be rejected. It gives no basis for including nature sports in the sport domain.