Sport and Physical Activities in the Czech Republic

Abstract

Sport and Physical Activities in the Czech RepublicThe situation on the field of physical/sportive activities in Czech Republic has been affected in the course of recent decades with fundamental political, economical and cultural changes of transforming society and general situation of workforce in context of sedentary society in particular. To contribute to increasing knowledge of the present-day position of sport in the Czech Republic means to search the relevant relations of municipalities and their policies to various levels of sport. To discuss the situation of sport includes describing the present position and role of sport activities in different societal and demografic parts of society too. From the perspective of the situation in sport delivery at the municipal level it must be borne in mind that there are diverse voluntary sports organizations in existence within the municipality, and, naturally, there is also the private sector. Underlying health determinants of a socioeconomic nature play a major role in causing vulnerability to health risks, including obesity as relevant negative reflection of passive way of life. Representative documents retrieved on national and school policies reflected by findings of the PREVOB Project confirmed mutually dependent and interconnected topical issues like nutrition policy and physical activity policy. The phenomenon of physical/sportive activity is connected with lifestyle behaviours. The most critical policy area on physical/sportive activity is the sole fact of sedentary nature of contemporary society: a very high level of prestige of sport and sportive activities in Czech society is incompatible with a very low level of practical regular physical or sport activities.

What Values do Leisure Sports Create and What is Their Relationship to Competitiveness?

“…A bigger problem is that young people do not do enough sports, too. (For more on consumer habits on sports of young people in Hungary, see Polányi, 1998;Laki & Nyerges, 1999;Pluhár et al, 2003;Neulinger, 2007;Pataki, 2007;Perényi, 2010, Edvy, 2013. The situation is similar in the Czech Republic (Sekot, 2010) and in Poland (Dabrowski & Radiuk-Strzeżek, 2010).…”

“…They also spent more days in hospitals than active people (cited in Ács et al, 2011). Still, the latest empirical research shows that more than 60% of Hungarians do not participate in sports with suitable regularity (Polányi, 1998;Gáldi, 2002;Gáldi, 2004;KSH, 2006;Földesiné, 2008;Eurobarometer, 2010;Gál, 2010;Király & Gál, 2010). A bigger problem is that young people do not do enough sports, too.…”

Providing Public Sport Facilities in Post-Socialist Times: The Case of the Czech Republic

“…Urban requirements for sport facilities were specified by ambitious, yet never fulfilled indicators for different sport areas. The unified concept of the sport movement determined the future direction of facilities development, with a privileged position of organized sport (Sekot, 2010;Špaček, 2011). Thus, while the development of sport facilities in the 1960s and 1970s was associated with decentralization and depoliticization of public administration within Scandinavian countries or the United Kingdom (Rafoss & Troelsen, 2010;Kung & Taylor, 2010), sport facilities in the current territory of the Czech Republic arose from central planning during the same period.…”

“…However, with these new trends in public services, new failures have appeared, some of them similar to market failures. Particularly, the issues of democracy, social exclusion or equity are discussed, namely by Hobza and Novotný (2008), Neuls et al (2009) or Sekot (2010). The authors point out that the primary emphasis on efficiency could prevent certain groups from equitable access to sport facilities and criticize that the approaches of individual municipalities vary significantly in the Czech Republic.…”

“…Thus, in recent years, municipalities have strengthened their position (or even got involved for the first time, in some cases) in sport (Slepičková, 2009;Sekot, 2010), with more than 70% of net local government expenditure on sport directed to the provision of sport facilities recently (Hobza, Skoumal, & Schwartzhoffová, 2013). Along with further changes in the legal framework (e.g., the Lottery Act No.…”